Help Wanted: US Air Force Says Not Enough People to Do the Job

A 2015 Air Force Total Climate Survey conducted by the US Air Force has claimed that there are not enough military and civilian workers, due to downsizing and budget cuts by the Pentagon.

According to the poll, 37 percent of 132,000 active-duty and reserve airmen and civilian workers agree with the statement that they do not have enough people on their teams to accomplish their work, Stars and Stripes reports. It is the lowest that question has scored in the history of the survey.

"There just aren't enough people in the Air Force to keep all the aging systems they currently have, bring on the new systems that must be fielded to enable success in the future, meet all the service's deployment and contingency support requirements, and give airmen a battle rhythm they can sustain over time," General Mark Welsh, former Air Force chief of staff, told the website.

"Trying to balance the budget in a way that is responsible for the future and take good care of airmen is always the goal," Welsh added. "Unfortunately, when your budget is dissected line item by line item, and virtually everything is protected by someone, it's hard to make the adjustments that make sense for the long term."

When the survey asked if they agreed with the statement, "I have enough time to accomplish my daily workload during my duty hours,” a little over 60 percent of officers and 75 percent of enlistees agreed.

"It's no surprise that manpower and time are concerns to our airmen," said General Stephen Wilson, Air Force vice chief of staff, in a statement on Wednesday. "At the time this survey was administered, our force was the smallest it has ever been in Air Force history.

"Despite the challenge this presented, day in and day out airmen carried out the mission without fail," he continued. "Since then, we've also taken on a number of initiatives to grow the force, save airmen time and focus on revitalizing our squadrons."

Though many service members think that they need more people, the airmen and civilian workers responding to the questionnaire were generally positive in their responses, which asked about all sorts of issues, ranging from general satisfaction to supervisor support.

“Eighty-five percent rated their unit's performance as high, compared with 88 percent in 2012, the last time the survey was taken. More than eight in 10 felt strongly supported by immediate supervisors and senior unit leaders, and the same percentage expressed satisfaction. Those numbers were similar to or slightly better than 2012,” S&S reported.