In uncertain economic times, some of the services are upping their recruiting goals February 2 Navy recruits wash their hands in preparation for chow on board Fort McCoy, an Army training center in western Wisconsin. (MC3 Nikita Custer/Navy) A down economy is notoriously fertile ground for military recruiting, setting up an opportunity for the services to shore up their end strengths while the civilian job market is in crisis. In the wake of massive unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic, recruiters have the opportunity to bring in more high-aptitude recruits, an easier feat when the economy is in a downturn. The Army, Air Force and Marine Corps have all upped their recruiting goals this year, after the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the number of incoming recruits in 2020. The increases coincide with a long-term plan to grow the Army, while the Air Force is overmanned and the Marine Corps is drawing down its manpower.
Is the military paying troops too much? Yes and no, study finds Stack of cash, money. Istockphoto by Stefan Klein The military has been paying service members much more than the minimum benchmark it set decades ago, according a Pentagon-funded study, so it should probably raise the benchmark. For roughly the past 20 years, the Defense Department has set its uniformed pay grades at about the 70th percentile, meaning 70 percent of civilian jobs that require similar levels of experience and education pay less than the military, and 30 percent pay more. But as part of a regular review of the compensation system, Rand Corp. experts suggest updating that policy.