Like the Army itself, recruiters prepare to make do with less
The Army has begun remaking its recruiting structure, The New York Times reports, as looming cuts to the Defense Department budget threaten to make a military career less attractive.
“Under the new model, recruiters will be deployed as teams from centralized offices that have civilian employees to handle much of the administrative work,” according to the NYT story. Traditionally, recruiters have worked alone.
The DOD recruiting budget is down $53.4 million for fiscal year 2013, the report said.
The military has long been considered a stable profession even during economic downtimes, which has helped keeped enlistments steady during the past decade despite two wars. But the pending $487 billion in cuts to the DOD budget over the next 10 years, as well as the threat of an additional $55 billion a year in sequestration cuts, has raised the specter that servicemembers’ pay and benefits could be reduced.
Experts interviewed by the Times also said the budget cuts could lessen the opportunity for soldiers to receive the kinds of specialized training that can lead to lucrative post-service careers in the private sector – a big selling point for recruiters – and that the well-publicized recent surge in suicides and PTSD among servicemembers could hurt recruiting efforts.
Source: The New York Times
