Senior Airman Victor Diaz, a military working dog handler, enters the assessment zone with Lezer at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., on March 7, 2022. (Michael Ward/U.S. Air Force)
WASHINGTON — The Air Force expanded retention bonuses this month for 89 career fields in high demand from cyber systems operations to bomb technicians.
Though the list was not made readily available by the service, it appeared on a Facebook group last week called “Air Force amn/nco/snco.”
“The list is authentic and accurate and was effective Dec. 16. We use the selective retention bonus to help retain talent that is in high demand,” Air Force spokeswoman Rose Riley said in a statement.
The military celebrated meeting recruiting goals in 2024 but attracting young Americans has been a long-running issue for the services. The Army, Navy and Air Force made changes after not meeting recruiting goals in 2023. Each military service employed various types of strategies, programs and enticements to overcome recruiting woes in recent years that were exacerbated by several issues including in-person recruiting restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic, a low unemployment rate and stiff competition from the private sector.
The Air Force fell short of its recruitment goals by 10% in 2023. Relaxed tattoo rules and increased bonuses are among the methods used to help the Air Force reach its recruiting mission goals in 2024, service officials have said.
The service also recently expanded medical waivers to cover asthma, food allergies and hearing loss in a bid to bring more recruits into the fold.
The memo detailing the career fields states the funds can range from $180,000 to $360,000 during an airman’s career. The selective retention bonuses are used to keep highly skilled airmen in job fields that might have low staffing, low reenlistment or high exit rates.
Some of the various roles include working dog handlers, bomb technicians, flight attendants, paralegals and airborne cryptologic language analysts.
Though the list has 89 jobs, some older jobs might not be included. For any careers that might have been removed from the list, airmen have until Feb. 15 to get another contract “before it is reduced [or] terminated” by Feb. 16, according to the document.
The Air Force’s budget for fiscal 2025 is $188.1 billion, with $1.1 billion slated for bonuses and retention programs for 118,000 positions.
