Yuma Proving Ground is the largest single employer in Yuma County, with a workforce of approximately 3,000 employees, both military and civilian, in addition to 9,000 to 10,000 military personnel who circulate through annually. The county estimates that it has an economic impact of around $425 million locally.
But the cyclical nature of employment there -- the fluctuations in the size of the workforce -- are just a part of the life for the facility, according to Julio Dominguez, technical director of YPG.
"We have a permanent core of government civilians working here," said Dominguez, who has worked at the base for 31 years and is the senior civilian employee on site. "A lot of supplemental work is contracted out to Trax (a main contractor at YPG) and their workload fluctuates as a result of base activities.
"It's all a function of the workload," he continued. "It's all a function of the constantly swirling politics."
And that fluctuation can impact how many people are employed at any time.
For example, on April 6, Trax laid-off 24 employees at the testing site.
"Twenty-four were laid-off... due to the completion of some major test programs at YPG," said YPG public affairs in response to a Yuma Sun inquiry. "The size of the Trax workforce is solely based on the number and scale of YPG test programs, and Trax managers must plan accordingly.
"Nevertheless," the response continued, "it is difficult for everyone when reductions like this occur."
Trax also noted it has no further lay-offs planned at the moment.
While its impacts may be felt hugely locally, the work at the base is correlated to decisions made in Washington, D.C., since it is an important military base. Recent U.S. history is a good demonstrator of this.
In Fiscal Year 1998, there were 1.3 million direct labor hours logged at YPG. That was before President George W. Bush declared the War on Terror following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan the following month, then the invasion and occupation of Iraq two years later, increased the testing facility's workload considerably over the course of those conflicts.
In F.Y. 2009, the direct labor hours logged had increased to 2.3 million, crescendoing to a peak of 2.8 million in 2013, the busiest year on record.
The load has declined since then, with 1.97 million direct labor hours being logged in F.Y. 2013 and around 861,000 this fiscal year so far, roughly the same as F.Y. 2014.
In the current political environment, with the Iraq War over and the Afghan War drawing down, the labor hours projected for this fiscal year 2015 are around 1.9 million hours.
"At the moment, our workload is steady," said Dominguez. "The next big lay-off is not out there yet."
Another key factor are the different types of programs that run depending on the needs of the military during any given time-period. During the counter-insurgency campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq one of the key needs of U.S. forces was for protection against roadside bombs.
"It's a mission that we didn't do before those operations began," said Dominguez. "During those years it grew enormously. Now it's so small that we broke up that particular organization into two separate ones."
The program, known as the Counter-Improvised Explosive Device program, conducted its first test in January 2004. In terms of personnel, there were 300 assigned to that mission by 2008 and 400 by 2010.
The number of people currently working on that mission is 75.
"Today, much of this mission has gone away, as American troops are no longer in active combat overseas," said Charles Wullenjohn, pubilc affairs officer at YPG. "However, the mission continues at YPG at its reduced level."
So dependent on the politics of the moment, in international, national and local terms, that is what influences the workforce and workload at YPG.
"The bottom line is uncertainty," said Dominguez. "How they decide the money is doled out in the end decides who loses jobs and who gains jobs."
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