Sgt. Olimpio Nunez, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal EOD Specialist with the 759th EOD Company out of Fort Irwin, Calif., speaks with Air Force JROTC cadets at Redlands High School in Redlands, Calif., March 4, 2024. U.S. Army recruiters across Southern California regularly host public events where diverse groups of Army reservists and active-duty soldiers interact with potential recruits, sharing their professional and personal experiences as U.S. service members. (Richard Cole/U.S. Army Reserve)
WASHINGTON — After barely meeting its recruiting goal last year, the Army announced Monday the service is aiming to recruit 61,000 new soldiers in the upcoming year.
“This goal is ambitious, but we believe it is achievable,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference.
The service set a recruiting goal of 55,000 for fiscal year 2024, narrowly surpassing it Sept. 30 with 55,300 new active-duty soldiers.
The Army set a recruiting goal in 2023 of 65,000 and slashed it after coming up short by about 10,000 soldiers.
The turnaround follows a yearslong enlistment funk. Each military service employed various strategies, programs and enticements to overcome recruiting woes.
In recent years the problems 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.
U.S. Army soldiers with the Wichita Recruiting Company host a booth at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in Hutchinson to interact with the public and inform about enlistment opportunities and benefits. (Aiden Griffitts/U.S. Army Reserve)
Wormuth and Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff, unveiled plans last October to reorganize its recruiting force under a single three-star commander and create professional job classifications for enlisted soldiers and warrant officers who specialize in recruiting.
In August, the service sent 25 noncommissioned officers to work with civilian organizations for four months to learn innovations in recruiting to help improve the service’s new training and lay the groundwork for new strategies in attracting more recruits across the country. For years, the Army has involuntarily selected soldiers to work temporarily in recruiting as part of career development.
Five companies — Amazon, Deloitte, Wells Fargo, the University of Louisville and Boot Camp Digital — will host the soldiers through December as part of a years-long process to overhaul how the Army finds and enlists new soldiers.
Along with the new recruiting goal, Wormuth said the Army’s Delayed Entry Program goal for next year is 10,000, twice the number it was for fiscal 2024. The delayed entry program allows enlistees to sign up but leave for initial training later, often so that they can complete high school or college.
“Our exceptional Army recruiters secured over 11,000 commitments into the DEP, setting us up for another strong recruiting year in FY25,” Wormuth said.
The service has found success with its Future Soldier Prep Course, a program that gives lower-performing recruits fitness and academic instruction to help them meet military standards and go on to basic training. More than 28,000 young people have graduated from the course with a success rate of more than 90%, Brig. Gen. Jennifer Walkawicz, who leads operations for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, said in September.
This year, more than 13,000 recruits — nearly 24% of the 55,000 — came through the program that started two years ago.
“For young Americans who had the desire to join the Army but not the test scores, we created the Future Soldier Prep Course to give them a path to meet our standards. These efforts paid off,” Wormuth said.
