Army Ups Recruiting Goal to 61,000 Soldiers in 2025, an 11% Jump

The Army will shoot to recruit 61,000 new soldiers in fiscal year 2025, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth announced Monday, an increase of 6,000 recruits after two recent years of missed goals

In late September, Army officials announced that it recruited 55,300 new soldiers in fiscal year 2024, meeting its annual goal for the first time in three years amid worsening recruiting environments.

“These challenges are not going away. Fewer than a quarter of Americans are eligible for military service, and fewer than ten percent of young people are interested in serving. Unemployment is at a historic low: more than sixty percent of high school graduates are going straight to college, and many young people know very little about the Army or what we offer,” Wormuth said Monday at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington D.C.

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In 2022 and 2023, the service brought in just 45,000 recruits each year, 15,000 less than its annual goal. This year, the Army 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, told Task & Purpose after the Army announced it met its goal that 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.

She also noted that the Army is evolving to meet the needs and lifestyle of Gen Z recruits who “weren’t even born when 9/11 happened.” A lot of the new ideas that the Army is floating, she said, considers the younger generation’s desire for more “career flexibility, stability, and predictability.”

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