3. Recruiting Resources, USD (AT&L), Accession Policy Directorate, July 2006
Effective recruiting is essential to sustaining the all-volunteer force. Each year the U.S. military recruits about 180,000 new enlistees to maintain an active duty enlisted force of approximately 1.14 million men and women. The Department of Defense (DOD) has been remarkably successful in meeting its recruiting targets, particularly since the early 1980s. Since 1982, the department has missed its annual recruiting target only three times-in 1998 and 1999, during a period of extremely low unemployment, and more recently in 2005, when a confluence of factors made the recruiting environment particularly difficult.
This paper, written by SA analysts, explores both the external and internal factors that affect recruiting for the active-duty enlisted force-capturing the results of a rich body of economic research that quantifies the degree to which these factors can impact recruiting. The central message of the paper is how sustained investments in recruiting resources can improve recruiting success. The paper concludes with a case study that describes how a confluence of both external and internal factors affected recruiting in 2005-a challenging recruiting year that offers useful lessons for the future.
The report will be published in August 2006.
Dr. Steve Wax
Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer
Science & Technology Consulting
