A national research group says Atlantic Canada will lose a disproportionate number of jobs as the federal government cuts the civil service.

David MacDonald wrote the report for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

He says more than 60,000 federal jobs could disappear across the country by 2014.

About 5,400 would be in the four Atlantic provinces.

"We could see 1,000 positions lost in Atlantic Canada from DND alone," MacDonald said.

"And then, secondarily, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, they'd see just under 1,000 positions lost."

MacDonald also said between 11,000 and 22,000 jobs will be lost in Ottawa.

The organization calls its report Cuts Behind the Curtain, because the Harper government has not revealed what programs and services are going to face the knife.

The CCPA describes itself as an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social and economic justice.