https://crsreports.congress.gov
Updated December 23, 2021
Defense Primer: Active Component Enlisted Recruiting
Congressional Role
The Constitution provides Congress with broad powers
over the Armed Forces, including the power “To raise and
support Armies” and “To provide and maintain a Navy.” In
the exercise of this authority, Congress has historically
shown great interest in military recruiting, which is critical
to maintaining a fully manned and capable military
workforce. Congress exercises a powerful influence on
recruiting through its establishment of personnel end-
strength levels for the Active Components and Reserve
Components. Higher end-strengths generally require a
greater number of new recruits, higher rates of retention
among current servicemembers, or some combination of the
two. Through its oversight powers, Congress monitors the
performance of the executive branch in managing the size
and quality of the military workforce.
Congress influences the achievement of recruiting goals by
the armed services in a number of ways:
authorizing military compensation packages that are
competitive with civilian employers (e.g., basic pay,
recruiting bonuses, educational and health care
benefits);
establishing criteria that affect eligibility for enlistment
such as age, cognitive, behavioral, and citizenship
requirements; and
funding recruiting programs that provide for dedicated
recruiters, market research, advertising, and military
entrance processing stations.
The policy levers most commonly used to manage
recruiting include varying the number of recruiters, funding
for advertising, and funding for enlistment incentives.
When recruiting shortfalls occur, or are anticipated,
Congress may elect to apply additional resources to these
mechanisms. Likewise, when recruiting is expected to be
strong, Congress may elect to shift resources away from
these areas.
Recruiting
Without a robust ability to bring new personnel into the
military, the armed services would lack sufficient
manpower to carry out mission essential tasks in the near
term. Moreover, without stable recruiting levels they would
lack a sufficient pool of entry-level personnel to develop
into the mid-level and upper-level leaders of the future. To
maintain a healthy military force structure, each armed
service sets goals for new personnel accessions each fiscal
year for both its Active and Reserve Components. Officer
and enlisted goals are set separately. For enlisted personnel,
there are both quantity and quality goals.
Quantity Goals
Quantity goals are typically based on each armed service’s
projected need for new personnel (both officer and enlisted)
over the course of the year to meet its congressionally
authorized end-strength. Enlisted quantity goals are based
on the proportion of congressionally authorized end-
strength that a specific armed service and component
allocates to its enlisted force, less the projected number of
currently serving enlisted personnel it expects to retain
through the end of the year. As a hypothetical example,
assume an armed service has an authorized Active
Component end-strength of 200,000 total personnel,
comprised of 30,000 officers and 170,000 enlisted
personnel. If it projects that it will retain 140,000 of its
current enlisted personnel through the end of the fiscal year,
it might set a goal of enlisting 30,000 new individuals for
that year plus a certain number more to account for those
new enlistees who are separated before the end of the year
(for example, for medical disability). The actual number of
new enlistees needed may also change during the year as
new projections are made about the retention of currently
serving enlisted personnel, or if the armed service must
increase or decrease the total size of its force (for example,
if a Service Secretary were to exercise the authority of 10
U.S.C. §115(g)(1)(A) to increase congressionally
authorized active duty end-strength for that armed service
by up to 2%).
Table 1 lists recruit quantity goals and results for FY2019-
FY2021.
Quality Goals
Quality goals are only for new enlistees without any
previous military service, also known as non-prior service
(NPS) recruits.
Two principal Department of Defense (DOD) quality
benchmarks apply to NPS recruits. The first quality
benchmark is the percentage of NPS enlistees who are high
school diploma graduates (HSDG). The second quality
benchmark is the percentage of scores above average on the
Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT Categories I-
IIIA). Since FY1993, the DOD’s quality benchmarks for
recruit quality have stipulated that at least 90% of NPS
enlistees must be high school diploma graduates, and at
least 60% must score above average on the AFQT.
Supplementary ways to assess the quality of enlistment
cohorts include the percentage of NPS enlistees who score
well-below average on the AFQT (Category IV) and the
number and types of enlistment waivers granted to enlistees
for medical reasons, misconduct, or drug use. DOD
regulations require that no more than 4% of an annual
enlistment cohort may be Category IV (10
th
-30
th
percentile
