The United States still holds the title of the international superpower regarding military strength. The U.S. \u201creportedly owns 92 destroyers, 11 aircraft carriers, 13,300 aircraft and 983 attack helicopters,\u201d according to The Defense Post<\/a>. \u201cIt also has the largest budget at $886 billion among all the countries in the list.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, at the end of 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense<\/a> announced it was struggling with setting recruitment goals. So much, in fact, that Army Maj. Gen. Johnny K. Davis, commanding general of the Army Recruiting Command, said, \u201c(It is) one of the toughest recruiting landscapes I\u2019ve seen in over 33 years of service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Tuesday, the U.S. military announced a 5% jobs cut, hoping to restructure the service to better prepare for future wars:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Army is not asking current soldiers to leave. As the Army builds back end strength over the next few years, most installations will likely see an increase in the number of soldiers actually stationed there,\u201d the Army said, per Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost of the jobs being slashed are related to counterinsurgency positions that grew during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but are not in high demand today,\u201d Fox News added \u2014 emphasizing that many of the cuts are positions that currently sit vacant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most significant deterrent to youth, when asked what their fears were regarding joining the military, is the fear of emotional and physical trauma, according to a survey by USA Facts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The top five reasons youth choose not to enlist:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe know that America\u2019s youth have a historically low level of interest<\/a> in military service and enjoy a highly favorable job market, which makes it even more difficult to recruit and retain highly skilled personnel,\u201d Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said, per USA Facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Army isn\u2019t the only service struggling to reach recruitment goals. The Air Force and Navy also failed to meet their goals, with only the Space Force and Marine Corps meeting their recruitment targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a goal of 65,000, the Army fell short by only recruiting a little over 50,000 new members in the last fiscal year. In 2022, \u201cthe Army also missed its enlistment goal by 15,000. That year, the goal was 60,000,\u201d according to ABC News<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an effort to gain more service men and women, \u201cthe service launched a sweeping overhaul of its recruiting last fall to focus more on young people who have spent time in college or are job hunting early in their careers. And it is forming a new professional force of recruiters, rather than relying on soldiers randomly assigned to the task,\u201d ABC News added.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy is the military struggling to recruit?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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