Military struggles to recruit Hispanics - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Military struggles to recruit Hispanics

The military and Congress want the ranks to roughly mirror the racial and ethnic makeup of America. But the services can’t seem to recruit enough Hispanics — even though that community tends to view the military positively.

A new study by the Rand Corp. think tank says that’s because Hispanics, more than other racial and ethnic groups, typically come up short in high school graduation rates, test scores and in meeting military weight standards.

As such, many young Hispanics fall into the military’s second tier of most desirable recruit candidates — below high school graduates who are physically fit and score in the top three categories on the Armed Forces Qualification Test. The best-qualified Hispanics, Rand said, have excellent civilian job prospects, making the military a tougher sell.

As a result, their numbers in the military lag behind the percentage of Hispanics in the U.S. population, the study says.

But at the same time, polls show that Hispanic youth have a strong affinity for the military — and once in the service, they, like black recruits, have consistently higher retention and faster promotion speeds than their white counterparts, the study says. The exception is in the Navy, where whites are promoted faster than Hispanics.

Because of the positive attributes that Hispanics and blacks generally bring to the table, the military might consider recruiting more “marginal” candidates from those groups, Rand said.

Beth Asch, lead author of the study, said Rand is not arguing for lower standards — something the Army, for instance, continues to grapple with as it tries to recruit more high-school graduates. She acknowledges that the military is and should be trying to sign up the highest-quality recruits possible; experts say top-tier recruits will be the most productive and flexible members of the force.

But given the desire for a force that closely mirrors society, it makes sense to increasingly target Hispanics, Rand said.

“We need to man the force, and we want to do it in the least costly way, because we want to use our tax dollars efficiently,” said Asch, a senior economist who specializes in defense manpower.

She said Hispanics are a “key segment of the youth market” that looks favorably upon military service. “So simply from the standpoint of using tax dollars efficiently, it seems like a smart idea to tap into a high-interest group.”

In 2007, Hispanics made up 17 percent of the general population ages 18 to 40, but only 11.4 percent of Army recruits and 15 percent of Navy recruits. Overall, only 13.5 percent of the force is Hispanic, according to the Pentagon’s most recent statistics.

Complicating matters is the relatively small percentage of today’s youth who even qualify for enlistment. For example, only 46 percent of white males, 32 percent of black males and 35 percent of Hispanic males would be eligible for enlistment in the Marine Corps, Rand said. For females, the figures are lower: 35, 22 and 24 percent, respectively.

In a further limit on the field, only 36 percent of Hispanic high school graduates score in AFQT Category IIIB or above — the recruits preferred by the military — compared with 68 percent of white high school graduates, who make up the majority of the overall force.

And while obesity is a problem for all races in America, Hispanic males weigh an average of 10 pounds more than white males, and far fewer Hispanic females meet weight standards than white females. Otherwise, Hispanics tend to be healthier than whites, the study found.

Rand said the military could explore several policy options to build Hispanic enlistment. These could include expanding existing programs to build English proficiency, which might improve AFQT scores; relaxing weight standards while maintaining strength standards; and, for the hard-to-get top-tier candidates, emphasizing the military’s education benefits and leadership opportunities, as well as monetary and other benefits.

The results of the study, Rand said, “suggest that it would be worthwhile to direct more recruiting resources to black and Hispanic markets.”