Active duty, reserves exceed recruiting goals

[unhappycamper]

Active duty, reserves exceed recruiting goals
By Seamus O’Connor - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Nov 13, 2007 17:56:46 EST

All four services and every reserve component started off the fiscal year by meeting their recruiting goals, according to a Defense Department press release.

All services and components also met or exceeded their retention goals, the release said.

The Air Force hit its goal exactly — 2,656 new airmen signed up in October. The Air Force Reserve topped its goal by a pair of recruits, bringing in 681 — 2 more than its goal of 679.

The biggest news in recruiting, though, was the Air National Guard. After starting fiscal 2007 with four solid months, the Air Guard failed to meet its recruiting goal for the remaining eight months, and ended up 7 percent short of its overall fiscal year goal. But last month, the Air Guard bested all services and reserve components proportionally by bringing in 818 recruits, 134 percent of the goal of 679. That performance was also better than October 2006, when the Air Guard brought in 803 recruits with a goal of 687.

This year’s goal is slightly lower, in part because the Air Force’s drawdown has affected the Air Guard, which wants an end strength of 106,700 by the end of fiscal 2008. That’s down 300 from last year.

The turnaround is based on several factors, according to Lt. Col. Randy Johnson, chief of guard recruiting and retention. For one, all services generally have lower goals at the beginning of the year, with monthly goals increasing slowly over the year. Also, there’s “always a lot of energy in the recruiting community to start the fiscal year strong,” Johnson said.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/11/airforce_recruiting_oct_071126/

[Gman]

1. I wonder what percent is gang members and convicts

[unhappycamper]

2. Unclear, but the services are aware there is a problem.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=5510

[Gman]

4. Yeah, I saw that

That's about the only way they can meet goals these days. They dropped the standards or started making exceptions/giving waivers 'bout mid-last year.

[Maq]

3. Here is the source of the Recruits

Construction woes: Workers try to hang on
The slump has hit masons, framers, concrete finishers and roofers especially hard.

By Tom Zucco, Times Staff Writer
Published November 11, 2007

Mark Kowalick always knew that if he didn't like where he was working, he could drive down the street near his New Port Richey neighborhood and find another job. At 39, he has been pouring concrete about half his life. It's what he does.
Or used to do. He has been laid off for nearly a year, a victim of the housing slump. And there's nothing down the street anymore.

To prove his point, Kowalick last week called every concrete company in the Yellow Pages, nearly 20 businesses in all, to find work. "Some numbers weren't working, some were out of business," he said, "and the rest said they weren't hiring or were laying people off."

The "help wanted" ads in the newspaper offer some hope, but one ad for a stone mason's helper, at $8 to $10 an hour, drew nearly 100 applicants. And many other construction job listings, he said, require that the applicant spend several hundred dollars for testing materials or applications.

It's so bad, Kowalick said, that pawn shops have stopped buying the tools contractors use because they're overstocked, and some of his friends have been forced to sell their most prized possession: their pickup trucks...

MEDIA SOURCE: http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/11/Business/Construction_woes__Wo.shtml

MAQs' INPUT;

This is just one little corner of Florida. Look all over the Nation and see the large pool of potential recruits available to the Military Recruiter. The Housing Bubble does not only affect the Foreclosed Borrower but also the people who built the homes. The green recruit can be as old as forty-two to enlist. BUT also remember that the Army will also take in Prior Service People from any branch of the Services.