Military recruiting up as youth unemployment rises

The Air Force and Army have met their goals early two years in a row, allowing them to send new recruits to their delayed entry programs. The Space Force never had a problem with recruiting. U.S. Air Force basic trainees receive their initial gear, including athletic shoes, at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, in February 2019. (Sarayuth Pinthong/U.S. Air Force) (Tribune News Service) — In their bright orange junior ROTC shirts, Air Academy High School students pushed each other to do as many situps as possible on a breezy fall day in October. It was a workout that followed a good-natured game of kickball and one that helps prepare students who are interested for their military fitness tests, should they choose to enlist or commission.

While not formal recruiting programs, JROTC and the high schools that host them are important pools of potential troops for the military. When the pandemic shuttered schools, recruiters blamed limited access to students in part for the branches’ inability to meet their recruiting goals. However, it’s a source of recruits that has started to shrink nationally, with the number of young people turning 18 each year in the United States expected to fall through 2041. It’s a demographic shift that started during the Great Recession when families started having fewer children. The Western Interstate Commission