Keeping the Force: Retaining Military Careerists

Abstract

Despite major recent recruiting and reenlistment successes, serious concerns are growing that the all-volunteer force will face severe tests in the nineties. This article explores one of the threatening prospects: far stronger civilian sector competition for technically trained military personnel. In particular, the authors first emK pirically estimate the magnitude of the pull of the civilian economy on the career military; then these estimates are used to gauge the impact of likely future civilian job growth on the chances that military personnel will reenlist or leave.