July 14,
2008: The U.S. Army continues to meet
its recruiting goals, for the first six months of the year. In fact, so many
people were trying to join the reserves, that recruiters were told to slow down
its efforts, lest all the positions available be taken before the end of the
year. The Army National Guard (which contains most of the army reservists) now
has 108 percent of the recruits it was to bring in this fiscal year (which
began last October).
The army
is still suffering most of the casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year
over 3,000 soldiers had to be replaced because of combat deaths, or soldiers
retired because of wounds, sickness or combat fatigue. Similar losses for the
other services totaled less than a thousand troops. All the services have
people in the combat zone, but army and marine personnel are doing most of the
dangerous jobs. Casualties are way down this year, and that will be reflected
in lower recruiting goals for next year. That's because combat losses, even
with more fighting in Afghanistan, will be less than half what they were in
2007.
Worsening
economic conditions in the United States (unemployment rates are at 5.5
percent, up from 4.6 percent a year ago) makes it easier for recruiters, and
has always been the major factor in determining how easy it is to get new
recruits. Over the last few years of high economic activity, the military has
had to pay out billions of dollars in enlistment bonuses, to attract the people
they wanted. While there's been no trouble in getting people for combat jobs,
most soldiers (about 85 percent) do "support" jobs, many of them virtually identical to civilian jobs. For these troops,
it's more of an economic decision, and the military has to be competitive. The
cost of competitiveness does down as the unemployment rate goes up.
