In general, when the going gets tough in the job market, there are a few positions that are considered to be safe enough to get you through the storm without any real possibility of layoffs. One of those areas is military service. As a matter of fact, when people have a hard time finding a good job they often at least consider entering into the service as a way to get a steady paycheck, and a nice cadre of benefits.

The problem is that in the current economic situation all of the old logic seems to have flown right out of the window and fewer places, if any, are actually safe. As it turns out, not even the military as even they are finding that they need to save money in order to keep a balanced budget.

Skipping on all of the obvious Village People jokes, most people who were in the navy thought that they were secure in their jobs and it turns out that they were not. Ever since last June about 16,000, primarily those in the middle of their careers, have been waiting to see if they were going to get the pink slip. For a few months it all seemed to be hanging in the air, maybe they would be out and maybe they would be in, but now the ax has fallen and it is coming in two rounds.

The first wave and the second wave will not be far apart. The second wave of lay-offs is expected to be announced near the end of this month, so, as you can imagine there are a lot of sailors who are going to be a little bit unhappy as they go home for the holidays in search of a new career under the Christmas tree.

At least their commanding officers have the dignity to be unhappy about what they have to do, unlike in the corporate world where a vague statement is made by the PR department. Captain Winton Smith, Naval Station San Diego’s commanding officer, had this to say about the layoffs to a local reporter, “Nobody ever wants to pass this sort of bad news to somebody. It’s a very difficult thing for any commanding officer to sit down with a hard charger and to tell them to prepare for the next chapter of their life.” He was ordered to relieve two sailors of their posts this week.

Where are the jobs coming from? Well, according to the information that we have currently the 16,000 sailor’s jobs will come from a variety of different places. While all of the sailors in this round have been in the military for between 7 and 14 years, we also know that the job duties cut were wide ranging. Some of the positions cut include everything from religious program specialists to aviation mechanics.

“It can come down to a particular rating is simply over-manned, and we
just have to reduce the number of people within that rating”, Smith told a reporter.