WASHINGTON — After a difficult few years, the Army and Air Force say they are on track to reach their recruitment goals this year, reversing previous shortcomings with a host of new programs and policy changes. But while the Navy expects improvement, it expects to fall short again.
The mixed results reflect ongoing challenges for the U.S. military as it struggles to attract recruits in a tight labor market, where companies are willing to pay more and offer good benefits without the demands of service and warfare. And even those who achieve their goals say they are still finding it difficult to attract the dwindling number of young people who can meet the military’s physical, mental and moral standards.
With six months left in the recruiting year, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said she is optimistic about meeting the 55,000 recruit goal and getting another 5,000 recruits into the deferred entry pool that would come in over the next year or so.
“Right now, we’re 5,000 contracts ahead of where we were at this time last year,” Wormuth said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I don’t want to set too high expectations right now, but I feel good.”
For the military, this is a bright spot in a long series of low numbers and protracted deliberations about how to reverse the momentum.
Last fiscal year, which ended September 30, the Navy, Army and Air Force all failed to meet their recruitment goals. The Marine Corps and the small Space Force have consistently achieved their goals, although the Marines have had some difficulty. The previous fiscal year, the Army fell 15,000 troops short of its recruitment target of 60,000, and the other services had to dip into pools of delayed-entry candidates to meet their recruitment numbers.
Now, with six months of recruiting under their belts – including the historically lean winter months – the Air Force and Army are optimistic they will achieve their goals.
A major success, Wormuth said, was the Future Soldier Preparation Course, which has graduated approximately 17,000 Soldiers since its inception in August 2022, including approximately 5,300 so far in this current fiscal year. The preparation course, now held at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and Fort Moore, Georgia, gives underperforming recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help them meet military standards and advance to basic training.
“Not only are the graduation rates very high, but the number of program graduates who are subsequently selected for leadership roles when they enter basic training or who do particularly well in basic training is remarkable,” says Wormuth, adding that 34% of leadership positions in basic training are filled by soldiers who have completed the preparatory course.
“We still have six months to go, so I don’t want to be too confident,” said Wormuth. But recruitment was high in February and March, usually the toughest months. “Now we’re starting to get into the spring and summer months, which are traditionally the better recruiting months.”
The Air Force is also optimistic, having made a number of policy changes, relaxing tattoo rules, increasing bonuses and expanding efforts to recruit legal permanent residents. The service missed its active-duty recruiting mission of more than 26,800 by about 3,000 airmen last year, but has surpassed its goal so far this year. Buoyed by the progress, the Air Force just raised its active-duty target for this year to 27,100, an increase of about 1,200.
Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein, the Air Force’s chief of recruitment, said that while he is “cautiously optimistic” about achieving their goal, “we can’t take our foot off the accelerator.” He said the agency should continue to look at policy changes and other adjustments.
However, Navy leaders say that while they are doing better than last year, they expect to miss their recruitment goal of about 40,600 by about 6,700.
“We continue to face challenges in the current and forecast economic environment and difficult labor market,” said Vice Adm. Rick Cheeseman, Chief of Naval Staff. “The Navy continues to explore and evaluate new methods for attracting qualified, motivated and capable candidates.”
The Navy has started its own recruit preparation course and earlier this year began enlisting people who have not graduated from high school or obtained a GED, as long as they score 50 or higher (out of 99) on the qualification test for the armed forces. . It was the second time in about a year that the Navy opened its doors to underperforming recruits. In December 2022, it began recruiting a larger number of sailors who scored very low on the test.
Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations, made clear last week that recruiting challenges have a direct impact on the Navy’s maritime mission. She told Congress that the Navy is about 18,000 short of the number of sailors needed for operations at sea, and about 4,000 short of jobs ashore.
Most of that would be filled by incoming recruits, and the shortfall comes as naval vessels in the Middle East face continued pressure and counter attacks from the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
The Marine Corps, meanwhile, hasn’t missed its recruiting goal, but has had to rely on delayed-entry recruits to reach the goal set two years ago.
“We will continue to deploy without ever lowering our standards,” Gen. Eric Smith, commander of the Marine Corps, told Congress bluntly earlier this month. The Corps is on track to meet this year’s target of 31,100 troops, including active duty and reserves.
The other services have begun duplicating what has long been a maritime program: using high-performing military personnel and emerging commanders to serve as recruiters.
Army leaders have begun a comprehensive reorganization of their recruiting force, creating a professional job classification and conducting reviews to weed out recruiters who are not performing well and would be better off in another job. And the service finds other benefits that work.
For example, according to General Randy George, Army Chief of Staff, about 25% of new recruits choose their first duty station. Until recently, recruits did not have that option. The key, Wormuth said, is figuring out which incentives work.
Right now, she said, the Army is trying to balance both short-term recruiting goals and long-term changes in the way the service recruits.
“The biggest challenge is maintaining our focus on achieving this year’s mission, keeping all the wheels turning that we have already set in motion, while also expanding the more transformative work we are doing,” said Wormuth. “We build the plane as it flies.”