Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Down Economy Boosts Military
Enlistment figures spike
WASHINGTON - The faltering US economy is fueling a dramatic turnaround in military recruiting, with new statistics showing that the Army is experiencing the highest rate of new enlistments in six years.
The Army exceeded its goals each month from October through January - the first quarter of the new fiscal year - for both the active-duty Army and the Army Reserve, according to figures compiled by the US Army Recruiting Command.
The silhouette of a US soldier appears on a wall as the sun rises during a patrol in Baquba, in 2008. (AFP/File/Patrick Baz) Officials said it is the first time since the first quarter of fiscal year 2003, before the start of the Iraq War, that the Army has started out its recruiting year on such a high note.
In recent years the Army either missed its initial goals or barely met them, and was forced to accept increasing percentages of recruits who either did not graduate from high school, scored in the lowest category on the armed forces qualification test, or required a waiver for past criminal activity.
Those trends had sparked deep concern that the largest branch of the armed forces was headed for a crisis in quality at a time when it is expanding the size of the overall force.
The latest recruiting outlook "is good news in the nick of time," said Beth Asch, a senior economist specializing in military manpower studies at the government-funded Rand Corporation.
Citing historical trends, Asch and other specialists predict that quality will improve along with the numbers, including the share of new recruits who have earned high school diplomas and scored high on entrance exams.
The Army has long had a goal of ensuring that at least 90 percent of new recruits have high-school diplomas - considered a key measure of competence and commitment. But in recent years the percentage of enlistees who completed high school has dropped below 80 percent.
The recruiting command, based at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, does not compile statistics on the quality of new recruits until the end of the fiscal year, so such information about recent enlistees is not yet available.
But Asch, who frequently advises the Pentagon on demographic trends, thinks the Army has reason to be hopeful.
"What the enlistment models would predict is there would be an increase in high-quality enlistment," said Asch.
Alan Gropman, a professor at the National Defense University in Washington who specializes in military recruiting, agreed. "They have more people to choose from and they will choose better people," he said.
Another factor that may be driving the recent gains, specialists said, is the improved situation in Iraq and the expectation that US military involvement in the war will be winding down - thus decreasing the likelihood that a new recruit would be deployed there.
On Friday, President Obama announced a plan to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by August 2010.
A recent study by researchers at Clemson University concluded that the Iraq war was a major factor in the steep drop in enlistments, especially among the most highly qualified potential recruits. The 2007 study found that the Iraq war had "reduced Army high-quality enlistments by one-third, after controlling for other factors."
"If you extrapolate, this Iraq affect will disappear and presumably there will be a reversal of that and there will be an increase in enlistment," said Asch.
But the dominant factor driving more people to consider Army careers appears to be the steady rise in the unemployment rate across the country. Since September, the unemployment rate nationwide has increased from roughly 6.2 percent to 7.6 percent, a rise of more than 20 percent, according to government figures.
Government studies in recent decades have indicated that for every 10 percent increase in unemployment there is usually a 5 percent boost in military recruiting.
"Typically a bad economy has worked to the benefit of the military," said retired Navy Rear Admiral John D. Hutson, currently the dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H.
So far this fiscal year, the Army's recruiting numbers show a steady improvement in every month. The Army exceeded its goal by 293 in October, 730 in November, 429 in December, and 706 in January for a total of 2,158.
"It was our best [period] in six years, in that we achieved our monthly missions [in] both active and Reserve each month," said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the recruiting command. "We know that historically an increase in the civilian unemployment rate has resulted in an increase in Army enlistments."
Indeed, it appears that the sagging economy is helping all the branches of the military, not just the Army, which has borne the brunt of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In February, the Defense Department released figures showing that for the month of January all branches of the active-duty military met or exceeded their recruiting goals. The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps also met or exceeded their goal of re-enlisting current members.
In the Reserve corps, only the Army National Guard did not meet its January goal, but remained "well ahead" of its annual goal to date, the Pentagon reported.
But while a bad economy is usually a boon for military recruiting, Hutson warns that the Pentagon still must closely monitor who it is bringing into the ranks.
People who are joining the ranks for purely economic reasons may not make the best soldiers, he said - especially when the economy turns around and they discover that they still must complete their service.
"The military has to be very careful about the motivation of the people it is bringing into the force," said Hutson. "Military service is hard work. It is not easy to serve well and honorably. Motivation has to be very good. If your motivation is you can't get a job anywhere else that is not necessarily the motivation they are looking for."
- Posted in
37 Comments so far
Show AllGuns and butter. Rich make wars,poor fight wars. The American way.
Shame you couldn't see what the article was about.
Dear Thomas More,
sixkilo's response suggests that he or she understands fully the article.
'Twould do you no harm to read William Golding's short essay "Thinking as a Hobby"; meanwhile, meditate on enthymeme.
Or for that matter, seek out Hedges's assessment of utopians of all stripes. More than likely, a search on CD will prove profitable.
Peace
Dear Thomas More,
sixkilo's response suggests that he or she understands fully the article.
Your response to sixkilo reflects the fact that you have no conscience. Your sense of justice at gun point isn't well hidden, pal. Sure there are lots of you around. you will probably be the death of us all. Congratulations. You win! You da man! Feel better now, pal?
My instinctive liking for you,Thomas, urges me to defend you. But you gotta help me do that. Perhaps if you expanded on your own opinion of the nature of that article?
We are, I believe, both vets, and are familiar with the motives and beliefs of our fellows in uniform, many here are not. It is very easy for some to transfer their antipathy towards war to those who joined the various services with primary motivations that were far from a war mentality. Family traditions, economic deprivations, training, money for college all played a part in enlistment rates and caught up our best and brightest in the meatgrinder of war. Perhaps your one liner above stems from the urge we both feel to defend our bretheren.
I have stated , on numerous occasions, that the insulting of our troops plays directly into the hands of the right wing, and diminishes the message of the progressives. Further I believe that such comes more from trolls and plants than from the real left. Sadly, some either too young or too naive do fall into the trap.
If we seek to correct such wrong headed criticisms we must use better strategies...hard as that may be sometimes.
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
With the free health-care and free college the US could afford by cutting the MIC budget, our country would be churning out scholars instead of killers.
Wages for workers are kept low by intentionally keeping unemployment levels high...
It is a similar index with economic woes and military recruitment...
In Both cases, the levers of the economy are manipulated by the Corporatists, not to end unemployment or war, but keep them in perpetuity... They are weapons in a global class war...
"In recent years the Army either missed its initial goals or barely met them, and was forced to accept increasing percentages of recruits who either did not graduate from high school, scored in the lowest category on the armed forces qualification test, or required a waiver for past criminal activity."
I still can't figure out why the rest of the world still sees us as a Superpower.....or do they?
This happened to my son and son-in-law a few years ago. The longer they were unemployed, the easier it was for them to get tempted into signing up. The night before they left, my husband was pushed into an argument by those two and nothing my daughter, husband, and I tried to do could get them out of this madness. They did contact us two years later finally and deeply apologize. Unfortunately, they lost their lives 1-2 weeks later. If this is the "hope" and "change" I voted for after getting sick and tired of Dubya and finding no hope for success from the other candidates, then please forgive me for voting Obama. In fact, please forgive us 130 million voters who chose Mccain or Obama. Maybe we need to sit down, get together, and reconcile as grownups and even elderlies before we can expect the pols to have a heart for us and the civilians in those countries we continue to rape and murder.
Thank you for those poignant and wise words. It looks pretty bad now but I think the severity of the global depression will force Obama to close a pack of overseas bases, evacuate Iraq AND Afghanistan and bring the troops to keep order and help build temporary housing and provide emergency services to the poor HERE. He won't have a choice because of the 30% unemployment. So hopefully, the poor forced into the ranks of the military will practice peace here instead of war someplace else.
Please accept my sincerest condolences for your family's tragic losses. We are, all of us, victims of a system that has become sick and twisted.
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
It takes a long time to alter military strategy.
Wars of occupation against a guerilla force can never be won. I learned that listening to UK radio reports in 1953, of the Kenyan conflict, as a ten year old. I wonder why, if I could understand that at such a tender age, such wars continue to be fought. Surely the Generals understand this?
It doesn't matter whether the war can ever be won. Orwell explained it in 1984:
"The problem was how to keep the wheels of industry turning without increasing the real wealth of the world. Goods must be produced, but they must not be distributed. And in practice the only way of achieving this was by continuous warfare.
"The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.
...
"It does not matter whether the war is actually happening, and, since no decisive victory is possible, it does not matter whether the war is going well or badly. All that is needed is that a state of war should exist."
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants. ....Thomas Jefferson
Part of the plan......no surprise here.
In the immortal words of Mr. Montgomery Burns, fingers steepled...
"Excellent.... Excellent"
All is going according to plan.
Did anyone else feel a (poverty) draft?
Walk in peace.
The US Military has also increased the recruitment of Foreigners giving them a fast track to Citizenship .
Apparently there jobs a plenty waiting on these people when/if they muster out and recive their LEGAL papers.
Pssssssssst! Would you like a job killing people? Would you like a job where you can destroy whole villages and the civilian casualties won't be counted? Would you like to drive a tank over your enemies or drop phosphorous bombs on kids?
Sign up, sign up, now. We'll educate you while you have fun! And you'll help us to control the world!
Enlist now!
http://www.dangerouscreation.com
How's that t-shirt go again?
"Join the military. Travel to far away exotic lands, meet new and exciting people . . . and kill them."
Thank you for the words of sanity. They have become unfortunately rare insofar as this topic is concerned.
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
Crappy economy and optimism on the horizon now that “Iraq War” appears to be drawing down? Seems to be a correlation with economic downturn, but there is no current data to support the recent uptick in recruitment numbers.
"The recruiting command, based at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, does not compile statistics on the quality of new recruits until the end of the fiscal year, so such information about recent enlistees is not yet available. But Asch, who frequently advises the Pentagon on demographic trends, thinks the Army has reason to be hopeful.”
Is hope/hopeful/hopefully becoming a loaded word now? Anyway, the article goes on to cite historically, unemployment impacts recruitment numbers.
“Government studies in recent decades have indicated that for every 10 percent increase in unemployment there is usually a 5 percent boost in military recruiting”
But what about optimism and hope impacting recruitment numbers? Right now all that seems to be hopeful is a group of “specialists” believing that by increasing the recruitment pool, by default, you’ll have a higher percentage of high quality applicants. However as, retarded Admiral Huston argues
“The military has to be very careful about the motivation of the people it is bringing into the force," ….
His implication is the quality of recruits motivated by unemployment might not meet high quality standards of the MIL.Then again, if it is a combination of optimism over the Iraq War winding down and the prospects of a new President and the hope assigned to him, perhaps you would see a steady uptick in military recruitment. Obama did promise to increase the military by 90,000 active duty troops. It wouldn’t make sense that his Administration would detract fresh bodies. But, there isn’t any data out yet to specifically determine why there is an increase in recruitment since September –even if unemployment is on the rise and seems the most likely reason.
The call to service over the last 18 months of presidential campaigning may finally being showing some dividends. Don't forget Obama telling Columbia they needed to open up their doors to ROTC. Just imagine the change coming....
As I wrote quite a while ago, the fact that the US economy(?) seems to be being driven deeper into failure and bankruptcy cannot be anything other than planned. Every move made is apparently made to give still more to the rich gamblers, to cover their losses and give them a new grubstake to wager, but also to drive the American economy even deeper into the slough of despond.
It looks like either a plan, or a fringe benefit. More hungry, hopeless unemployed to "take the Queen's shilling and go for a soldier."
By gad, Sir, with the Hessians at our side, we'll take America back from those upstart colonists!(Oops, sorry, wrong century)
With Blackwater by our side, we'll take our oil back from those Iraqi rabble.
I support the mindless pawns of the plutocracy!
I agree with O. This article is not surprising at all if one sees a larger plan at work. The ruling elite need more fodder for their wars of conquest. Less and less people were signing up willingly, and a draft would have been too obviously fascist at this point in time. What better way to get the hired killers than by making it much more financially viable to join up than settle for what this tanking economy has given them?
Students! Young people seeking jobs! Have you heard how this issue was framed in the early 1980s?
Reagan cut back on student aid over at the Education Department, and pumped up student aid over at the OTHER Education Department, (the one in the Pentagon). "You say you want to go to college, join my volunteer army and fight in my wars first!"
That's a key issue to be fully reversed!
Beware of the rage of those you have taught to kill people and destroy things. They can do the same to you and your's.
Poet
Hey, Brian, how about this:
Why join up to get an education? Why postpone your life? Just do what the rich bankers do, rob the bank. The bankers have been looting the vault, why not you?
One bank and you got under graduate and graduate school paid for, and no part time job. You get caught and do time, you still can get a degree while in the slammer. Weekends will suck, however.
Maybe you explain the fairness to the judge and he will throw you a couple million for your balance sheet, just like the fed's have been doing for the banksters.
Hey, at least you wont get your legs blown off or killed. Now that would really screws the weekends.
Here's a better idea. Instead of anarchy and destruction, how about reaching out and trying to help unite the working class. In a capitalist society, rich people are rewarded while you and I would be punished for robbing a bank. Besides, the rich do it differently and "legally". Perhaps we could try counter-rigging the system for a change.
Too little is known about how to do good organizing, how to be effective. It's no wonder that people get frustrated, lose hope, orient toward futility, become susceptible to manipulation by infiltrators.
Yes, this is a sort of workshop on how to climb up and tear down the flag, as at the 1968 Democratic convention, (a policeman dressed as a hippie?). Those who attend should get a sort of "Darwin certificate."
1. Are we targeting someone who actually makes the decision? Who is the person with the power to decide? (not public, not police)
2. Are we prepared to force them to communicate with us?
3. Are we actually asking the person to do something specific?
4. Is it a winnable step? It doesn’t have to have a greater than 50% chance of being won, just a reasonable chance, suggests Roger Fisher in his books. (This changes if you really work those two chapters (2 & 3) in Beyond Machiavelli, and worksheets in Coping with International Conflict.)
5. Have we thoroughly prepared for this? Fisher’s book, Getting Ready to Negotiate: The Getting To Yes Workbook has a full packet of additional worksheets, including one right up front for assessing where you should start. ... (See worksheets listed at my blog.)
6. Do we know what to do after they “say no?” I find that the approach of wanting to be heard is sometimes followed by quitting after they say no. ... (Getting Past No, by Ury
7. Are we monitoring and documenting their responses and using them as teaching tools? ...
8. Are we running our own meetings with them? ...
9. Are we giving our members the chance to “be there” during negotiations? ...
Start a new industry: human hamburger.
They're all Republicans-- right? So the label can
be Young Republican Hamburger.
I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.
– Mark Twain
That's the master plan, to starve the lower classes of jobs and real career opportunities so they'll join the military in droves. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand it.
By getting a free college education and defend "freedom" they're in fact becoming contract killers, too dumb to realize that a college education is nothing compared to losing a limb or you life killing innocent brown people across the globe for their resources. Blind fools.
Yeah, the U.S. leadership is copying the Roman legions who marched across the known world hacking people to death plus assorted raping and pillaging.
But then, look what happened to the Roman Empire and every other Empire that has ever been.
You could never accuse America of learning from history, could you? Blind fools is right!
www.dangerouscreation.com
More fodder for the MIC to function... Think it has expected to need extra extra boots on the ground for the up coming future resource wars stemming from climate change? Sometimes I think that those at the top don't make mistakes... That they've had an idea all along what is coming down the pike in regards to the climate situation and they are preparing... in there way...
Born in the USA.
Start a war, for the rich today,
Blow things up just to make them pay,
Then move in and rebuild the day,
Come back home as a new hero slave,
Get married and have kids right away,
Grow them tall, so they do not sway,
For they will be the patriots of the new wave,
And will join the ranks of the super who prey,
And do the bidding for the captilists way,
Innocent people have no choice but to stay,
Start to kill when the command is sent into play,
For we are American,Born in the USA.
BornFreeMen
Support the troops, bring them home, and let the rich,and war machine corporate owners send their kids in first, if war is what they need.
Troops trained by the armed forces will eventually be hired by corporations and the top 1% as war and "security" are privatized.
The CORPORATION must be stripped of legal "personhood".