The first round of Food and Drug Administration employees who faced losing their jobs to the private sector will be allowed to retain their jobs and pay, agency and union officials said Friday.

Earlier this year, the FDA began a series of 13 studies to examine whether it could save money by transferring to outside firms the work now done by more than 320 employees in administrative support positions. On Friday, the FDA told the 77 employees included in the first four of those studies that their work would be retained within the agency.

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents more than 5,000 FDA employees, urged FDA officials to abandon plans to conduct the remaining nine studies, which are to be done in three further phases.

That won’t happen: The studies are ongoing and are expected to be completed by January, said Kim Holden, the agency’s assistant commissioner for management.

Since 2003, there have been seven other studies to examine whether contracting out some FDA work would save money. FDA employees successfully held onto their jobs in each of those cases, Holden said.

Lawmakers have criticized FDA plans to turn over some of its work to the private sector.