Pentagon: Recruiting Last Year Was Best Since 1973

[Purveyor]

(10-13) 13:18 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

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 percent 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.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/10/13/national/w112609D24.DTL#ixzz0TqtoJL2Z

[AllentownJake]

1. When the economy sucks

People join the military. Unemployment amongst young people seeking work is extremely high.

[gateley]

2. Good point. nt

[theoldman]

3. There was an article on this in our local newspaper.

It is no different now than it was 50 years ago. When there are no jobs, enlistment goes up. A father and husband does not want his family to go hungry and without a roof over their head. What surprised me the most was that only about 30% of the local people are eligible to enlist. The other 70% are either criminals, or too dumb or too fat.

[Autumn]

4. Not a lot of jobs out there

so yeah some young people will enlist.