Army meets recruiting goal with soldiers who are older or need extra prep

The Army’s recruitment upswing comes after Wormuth’s announcement in October to overhaul and modernize the way the service recruits – realizing that the service needed to invest in more online outreach to attract Gen Z and compete with the private sector. In addition to looking beyond high school, recruiters are trying to meet potential soldiers where they’re at by using a recruit mobile app and digital job boards, Davis said.

The Army also created two new military occupational specialties: 420T Talent Acquisition Technicians and 42T Talent Acquisition Specialists modeled off of corporate recruiters in the private sector.

In 2022 and 2023, the service brought in just 45,000 recruits annually, 15,000 less than its annual goal. This year, the Army met lowered its goal to 55,000, Kate Kuzminski, director of the military, veterans, and society program at a the Center for New American Security, a Washington D.C. think tank, said the lowered number and new approach is part of the service’s plans to realign its force to be ready for potential future conflict with Russia or China.

“The reduction in end strength is tied to a change in force structure that is moving from the brigade combat team structure back to a core and division-led structure because that is what we’ll need for near peer competition and or near peer conflict,” Kuzminski said.

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