Pentagon: Recruiting Last Year Was Best Since 1973

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's personnel chief said Tuesday the military has completed its best recruiting year since 1973, meeting all its goals and bringing in a better educated group of young people.

The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps met goals for active duty and reserve recruiting during the budget year ended Sept. 30 – the first time that has happened since the all-volunteer force was established, said Defense Department head of personnel Bill Carr.

He told a Pentagon press conference that it's partly because of department spending on finding recruits, even as fewer civilian jobs were available due to the nation's economic problems. He also cited increases in military pay.

For the active-duty force overall, Carr said 96 percent of recruits had a high school diploma, the best showing since 1996. For the Army, it was about 95 percent, up 11 percentage points from the previous year. And 73 percent of Pentagon recruits scored above average on the military's math and verbal aptitude testing, the best showing since 2004, Carr said.

The military spends about $10,000 per recruit, taking into account advertising, recruiter time and office leases for recruiting stations, he said. Recruits are in the 90th percentile of earners for their education and time in the workplace, Carr said.

He said studies show that those born between 1978 and 1996 "are more inclined toward service to society. That's a good thing, because that means we start off stronger with a given group of young people."

There also are factors that limit the pool from which the military must draw roughly 300,000 recruits each year. Some 70 percent of American high school students go on to college now, compared with only half in the 1980s. And one in four in the prime recruiting age of 17 to 24 are obese, raising fitness questions, compared with one in 20 in the 1980s, Carr said.

(This version CORRECTS that the number of recruits with a high school diploma rose 11 percentage points, not 11 percent.)

Comments

[AirForce Vet]

This isn’t meant to be harsh but it’s reality. What has test scores in recruitment have to do with anything when troops are on the battlefield? If you are in war, death and injuries are no respecters of test scores. Military life can be great, but not at the behest of foolish men.

[vascopyjama]

Get all you can. Was that the Army or Wall Street's slogan. I forgot.

[naschkatze]

Because there are no jobs. What was that percentage the other day of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 being unemployed?

[graffitijoe]

Outstanding! I'm glad to see recruiting is going so well. I hope many of these fine young people find a home in the military.

[Fred Hood]

Only job in town........

[libbily]

There is something truly unfortunate happening when a country keeps their young people poor, uneducated and disposable, in order to boost recruits, to fight and die in rich men's wars. How sad!!

[Fred Hood]

DITTO

[delvis]

My son's friend just turned 18 and when he graduates in the spring he's off to Marine boot camp. My kid's going to Europe for a few months...........

[graffitijoe]

Must be nice to be one of the idle rich.

[desktop]

It's called a bed to sleep in, three meals a day, and free health care. Beats living under a bridge. But hey no need to mention that might be the real reason. Let's just pretend, like we do with our economy.

[graffitijoe]

I understand your point, but I must point out the average healthy 18 or 19 year old doesn't care about free health care.

Now, if the Obama "tax and fine for health" bill passes, maybe people will join the military to avoid the fines and/or jail time that will be imposed by the IRS for not buying insurance.

[bulfinch]

I guess the new hires can thank Bush/Cheyney for wrecking the economy.

[Roxanna]

Unemployment at its highest since the Great Depression.... Just where are the options for young people???

It is sad place in our country, when the only job available is joining the militarily and going to war.

Heaven help Corrupt America

[Graywolf48]

Unemployment among America's youth is what, 54%? Where else are these youngsters going to go? Since their parents are also probably unemployed, they cannot very well go home. I expect recruiting for the Armed Forces to get even better in the months to come.

[wonketteRAWKS]

Waving money in their faces and lowering standards...of course the numbers were up last year.

[spytheweb]

Recruiting is good because Bush/Cheney destroyed the economy and created 2 wars. Where else are young people going to find work?

[themainpoint]

Exactly. Except it wasn't just Bush and Cheney.

Despite the bailout for "Main Street" ( thanks again CNN and others for all the misinformation you peddled) jobs were lost anyway,banks won't loan to small businesses, and salaries for many have gone down.

And also thanks to Congress, Americans and small businesses (that can't get a boxmart discount rate on group health insurance) are overcharged more than twice the going rate for health care due to subsidies and giveaways to big investors and medical interests.

And thanks to the unions being destroyed and labor protections going wayward, in many cases the pay and benefits of the workers who make the profits possible are earmarked for a greedy few who want it all at any cost and don't have the vision or character to come up with creative and fair solutions.

Who else is offering jobs with much security or benefits to the young except boxmarts, the government and the military?

But joining for those reasons is not an answer. Seems it would pay off better for young people to start small cooperative businesses for a living while joining together to get back some basic fairness and more varied opportunity for themselves and the next generation.