Army plans to overhaul recruiting to attract more young Americans after falling short last year

The Army announced plans Tuesday to overhaul its recruiting efforts after missing its recruiting targets for another fiscal year. The branch performed better than in 2022, but still fell short about 10,000 contracts short of its "stretch goal" of 65,000, Army officials said Tuesday. 

"It was evident I would say months ago that we were going to have to make some more transformational changes," Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said. "Just continuing to sort of have the same approach, but do it better and harder was not going to get us where we need to be." 

The proposed overhauls are a result of a detailed study of Army recruiting over the past 25 years focused on regaining a competitive footing in a modern labor market, which has changed significantly since the all-volunteer force began in 1973.