Has military recruiting increased recently?

I haven’t heard anything about recruiting increasing.
Why would a presidential transition drive that?

What I have heard of is an increase in the number of enlistments for military service due to lack of employment. This seems to be a direct result of the economic issues.

I did see or hear a news piece saying that military enrollment was up in 2008 and that they had met or exceeded their recruitment goals for the first time in many years. I think it has a lot to do with the Iraq war winding down and the economy being so bad. Maybe enrollees also think there is a less likely chance of war with President Obama.

Here’s a link to an army news release:

http://www.army.mil/-newsreleases/2008/10/10/13228-army-exceed-recruiting-goal-for-fiscal-year-2008/

although the military has not increased significantly since Obama took the reins, there were major increases in the previous years.

The army, for example, can now take felonies. The Army admitted about one-fourth more recruits last year with a record of legal problems ranging from felony convictions and serious misdemeanors to drug crimes and traffic offenses.

Pentagon officials acknowledged that the requirement to recruit more troops—part of an effort to expand the Army and Marine Corps by tens of thousands by 2011—coupled with declining interest in military service in part caused by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, has led to accepting more recruits with criminal backgrounds.

Waivers granted for felonies and other crimes constitute the majority of all waivers—about 60 percent for the Army, and 75 percent for the Marine Corps. But other exceptions are also increasing, suggesting that the Army and Marine Corps are bringing in lower-quality recruits, according to Pentagon data and experts.

Army and Marine Corps waivers for medical problems—such as being overweight—increased last year. Medical waivers constituted about 30 percent of all Army waivers last year and 25 percent of those for the Marine Corps. Also, in recent years the Army has been accepting more recruits who are not high school graduates.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/21/AR2008042103295_pf.html

seriously, unless you are long unemployed, why would anyone want to enlist? There is a stop loss order in effect. Therefore, even if you signed up for a 3 year stint, you can not get out when your contract is up. Men are going back for their 4th, 5th and yes, even 6th tours of duty. This is something that did not happen during the Vietnam years.

I know that I got a recruiment call when I turned 18 and not one since (past 8yrs). But in the past 6 months I have gotten a call every month.

Yeah, it has gone up and it will continue to do so if the economy doesn’t pick up.

Just join the Air Force. Don’t deploy that much, and when you do it’s only 4 – 6 months usually rather than 15 in the Army, and we have no stop lossing or convicted felons in our ranks.

The recruitment statistices are available on various online sites, so you can do the research. However, the news indicates that there does seem to be more activity. There are approximately 2 million people currently serving in the military. Of those, around 1 million are stationed in the US, and 800,00 in bases around the world. the remaining 200,000 are deployed in action zones.

90% of the jobs in the military do not involve killing or getting killed.

The military targets schools especially in low income areas. They make lots of promises. Once the person is signed up most of the promises don’t happen.That being said it does turn around the lives of a lot of troubled kids that seem to be going nowhere.

You are all out of your mind if you think recruiters need or want you. Our target market is the high school senior. Additionally, we don’t want your felons and the last stop loss happend in 2002. It is an ALL VOLUNTEER SERVICE, People stay becuse they want to, quit feeding your BS becuse you have no frame of reference and have no idea how recruiting and the military works. I don’t get any weight waivers for my applicants, and the reason for the military recruiting increses are not for our efforts to go and get you to join. Haven’t you even considered the fact that people can’t find work and approach us?

@Supergirl, If you are a female under the age of 28 you probably have gotten a call we sometimes have female enlistment quotas, you should feel special that someone wants to offer you a chance to get out of yor current circumstances.

@StellarAirman, you are probably right about the convicted felon part, but sadly mistaken about the felonies that are committed but not ever charged. And as for being safe, if you think any branch is “Safe” you are mistaken and probably a boot Airman right out of your sissy technical training summer camp. Good luck when you get deployed to a combat zone with no combat skills, then tell me how safe you are. Unless you’re a desk Jockey. In which case you might as well be a civilian.

@mrwhoopie, Show me facts and figures about specifically targeting low income areas because they are low income and not becuse of the dense population. Have you ever considered the amount of interest those kids have in the military, or maybe that they approached the recruiter? Did you know that more populated areas tend to be lower income? Hence more people to have to screen through in order to find one that is qualified? Show me something to prove otherwise and I’ll buy it. Until then…

I hope I didnt completely offend anyone, at least too much, I am a realist, I dont sugar coat and I deal in facts.

@BoltFan Thanks for the facts. I did volunteer work with the U. S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps, and I agree with your assessment.

Yeah I know about the stop loss becaue I was invloved. Not a big deal though and it lasted a short time. I tend to get a little sparked up when I see people make silly post based on what they think versus what they know.