Increased efforts, lower goal help Army end recruiting slump

The Army beat its recruiting goal this year through a combination of lowered targets and increased efforts, after failing to hit higher goals in 2022 and 2023. 

The service recruited 55,300 soldiers against a goal of 55,000 in fiscal 2024, the service said Thursday. The service also saw 11,000 people commit to enlist in fiscal year 2025 under the Delayed Entry Program, more than double last year’s total. 

The service also enlisted 6,000 more soldiers in specialties it deems critical this year compared to last, said U.S. Army Recruiting Command chief, Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis, speaking at a Thursday media roundtable.

Last year—fiscal 2023—the service recruited 50,181 soldiers against a “stretch goal” of 65,000, as Army Secretary Christine Wormuth put it, with 4,611 signing up for deferred entry. At the time, the Army presented the Delayed Entry Program numbers as part of its overall recruiting contracts, leading to reporting that the Army had hit 55,000 contracts. 

In 2022, the Army recruited 44,901 new members, well short of its goal of 60,000. 

The Army’s press release did not say why the service sought 55,000 recruits in 2024 after seeking 60,000 and 65,000 in previous years. But the lowered target comes as the service works to consolidate undermanned formations created by past recruiting shortfalls. 

The Army has blamed poor recruiting numbers in part on the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as more prosaic issues like obesity, a strong U.S. economy, and the failure to meet the Army’s drug policy.

One major contributor to this year’s success was the Army’s “Future Soldier Preparatory Course,” a two-year-old initiative  to prepare prospective soldiers for the Army’s required physical and academic tests. 

In fiscal year 2024, 13,206 soldiers passed from the course to basic training. The course has taken over 28,000 recruits since it was launched, with over 90 percent of those recruits graduating, said Brig. Gen. Jennifer Walkawicz of Army Training and Doctrine Command. The Army expanded the course earlier this year, adding a total of four training companies. 

Other measures included a major new recruiting campaign that revived an 80’s-era slogan, “Be All You Can Be,” which launched in March 2023. The Army also temporarily increased medical personnel at intake centers to make the onboarding process more efficient, according to an Army press release. 

The Army announced structural reforms to recruiting last October. New initiatives include establishing recruiting as a separate military occupational specialty, creating a recruitment experimentation group, and setting a goal to rely less on high-school recruiting. In August, the Army graduated its first class of recruiters under the new specialty. The service also 

launched an AI program in the last two months to identify potential recruits. 

Army leaders were cautious about declaring an end to their recruiting struggles, though. 

“We’re going to have to kind of keep fighting hard for our new recruits,” said Wormuth, citing low unemployment and an expected decrease in the population as factors working against Army recruiters.