U.S. Army to Cut 24,000 Jobs in Restructuring Plan

The U.S. Army is set to reduce its workforce by around 24,000 positions, primarily vacant, as part of a restructuring strategy aimed at enhancing capabilities and rebalancing its force structure. This move comes as the Army faces challenges in meeting recruitment targets.

This restructuring initiative follows a comprehensive assessment of the force structure conducted over the past year, revealing that the Army is currently “significantly over-structured,” indicating a shortfall in the number of soldiers required to fill existing units. The plan aims to increase the number of active-duty soldiers to 470,000 by fiscal year 2029, an increase of 35,000 from the current level of about 445,000.

Most of the cuts will be in vacant positions, meaning existing soldiers will not be affected, and many military installations are expected to see increases in stationed soldiers. Additionally, the Army plans to create 7,500 new roles to introduce new capabilities, while reducing 10,000 engineering roles, 10,000 roles from various combat teams, 2,700 from under-deployed units, and 6,300 from other divisions.

Lt. Col. Rob Lodewick, an Army spokesperson, stated that these changes, which will be implemented over the next decade, are intended to ensure that the Army can deploy well-trained and effective forces to tackle future challenges in complex operational environments.

The Department of Defense reported a shortfall of more than 41,000 new recruits for the nation’s Army, Navy, and Air Force in fiscal year 2023, which ended in September. However, the Marine Corps and Space Force met their recruiting goals for the same period.

The U.S. military has been facing recruitment challenges in recent years, attributed to various factors such as a lack of trust in institutions among Generation Z and a robust economy. To address these challenges, the Army announced an overhaul of its recruiting processes in October, following its failure to meet its recruitment goal of 65,000 new soldiers in fiscal year 2023, only recruiting 55,000. This shortfall follows a similar trend from the previous year, where the Army recruited 45,000 new soldiers, falling short of its goal by 15,000. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth noted that the service had not met its recruitment goals since 2014.