Since 1989, the Army has reduced its civilian strength by 42 percent, while the average age of Army civilians has increased from 43 in Fiscal Year (FY) 1989 to 48 in FY 2000.During the downsizing in the 1990s, virtually all college recruitment, internships, cooperative education, etc., were dramatically curtailed or halted, thereby adversely affecting retention of existing civilian staff. As a result, there has been a sharp decrease in the number of employees under the age of 30, from 17 percent in 1989 to 6 percent in 2000. With little or no infusion of “new blood” in the recent past, the civilian workforce has been aging in place.