Recruiting Minorities: What Explains Recent Trends in the Army and Navy?

Paul Heaton, RAND Corporation

Abstract

Click to Read Online Since 2000, black representation among high-quality recruits in the Army has decreased, while Hispanic representation has increased; in the Navy, black representation has remained stable and Hispanic representation has increased. (Recruits are considered to be high-quality if they have graduated high school and score above average on the Armed Forces Qualification Test.) The decline in black enlistments is of concern both because black youth have traditionally been a key market segment for the Army and because Congress has expressed concern about the degree to which military enlistments proportionately reflect the population that the U.S. military defends. Asch, Heaton, and Savych examine military and civilian data to identify factors — such as differences among blacks, Hispanics, and whites in their responsiveness to various recruiting tools and their views on the war in Iraq — that explain these trends. The authors conclude with a discussion of which policies are likely to be most effective in increasing high-quality enlistments among blacks, Hispanics, and whites.