Civilian employment at CAFB higher than expected

Cannon Air Force Base maintained a higher than expected civilian workforce during its transition to a special operations wing.

The Civil Service workforce at Cannon dropped from 730 in 2006 to 570 at present.

However, the civilian personnel office is looking to fill 50 positions on base, according to Cannon Public Affairs Spokesman Staff Sgt. Brandon Seals.

According to the Environmental Impact Report regarding Cannon’s transition to a special operations wing, the number of civilian employees would drop to 407 in 2008. By 2010 the number of civilian employees would inch its way up to 420, according to the report.

“I think maybe they didn’t drop as much as they thought it would and so it hasn’t taken us as long to get back up almost to where we were for the total base population,” Seals said.

Posted on usajobs.gov, the 50 positions range from food service workers to air traffic control specialists.

Seals said there are no updated projections on how many more civilian jobs the base would fill.

“I think a lot of their positions are going to be reactive in the sense that I don’t think they’re really going to know how many of those types of jobs they’ll need until the base population starts to go up,” he said.

Seals also said the contractor workforce at Cannon has stayed at about 320 during the transition.