Military Recruiting Up in Down Economy
- What profession is bucking the trend of many US industries right now and still stocking up at the rate of 180,000 new hires each year?
If you guessed the US military, you are correct.
The Defense Department says it's recruiting another 180,000 people for its active duty forces this year and another 140,000 reservists.
Pentagon officials say the number of Americans expressing an interest in joining the military is growing larger by the day. They say our nation's unemployment rate is partly responsible and that each branch of the armed services is meeting or exceeding their recruiting goals.
At a Navy recruiting office in Fairfax Monday, 19-year-old Loudoun County High School senior Jeremy Parker was finalizing some paperwork. He's joining the Navy after graduation.
"I love my country a lot and I just want to serve my country," Parker told us.
Recruiter Andrew Nemeth says the Navy is still attracting patriotic young people, but also many older Americans looking for a stable job.
"Just the benefits itself: free medical, free dental, that's something that's just phenomenal right now with what's going on with people losing their jobs and their benefits getting cut back," Petty Office First Class Nemeth said.
Armed Forces recruiters say their job is less challenging with the Iraq war not as deadly, but still difficult because of the high standards they set.
Military analyst and Brookings Institution scholar Michael O'Hanlon says the Pentagon is "having a much easier time getting good people and fulfilling their numbers and even exceeding their targets as the Army and Marine Corps particularly try to get large in these times."
The age limit for enlisting in the US military is 42. The pentagon says last year 92% of all recruits had high school diplomas. The average first-year salary is $35,000 dollars. The average Army bonus is $12,000.
In the Navy, a 6-year commitment to its nuclear power program gets you a $20,000 bonus. Navy seals get $40,000 extra right off the bat.
"And then just the security of knowing that the Navy's not firing people right now," recruiter Nemeth says. "We're not laying anybody off." That is, if you're in good health and don't have a lengthy criminal history.
O'Hanlon says "signing up" is not a bad option.
"For most people the military is a pretty well-paid profession. And so, unless you are acutely worried about being deployed or being hurt, and of course those are real worries in this day and age, financially it looks like a halfway decent bargain and that's something we've got to understand as we see these numbers go up and wonder why."
Despite a growing number of applicants for military jobs, the Pentagon Monday launched a new program. For the first time it's allowing immigrants here legally but without green cards to apply for jobs as doctors, nurses and translators.
