U.S. Army Increases Bonuses for Recruits to $50K as the Effects of COVID-19 Takes Toll

For the first time ever, the U.S. Army is offering a maximum enlistment bonus of $50,000 to highly skilled recruits who join the service for six years.

According to the Associated Press, the Army is struggling to bring on recruits for specific critical jobs during the pandemic.

Maj. Gen. Kevin Vereen, head of Army Recruiting Command, told AP that the competitive job market and shuttered schools during the continuing pandemic had posed significant challenges for recruiters.

So as the Army heads into the most challenging months of the year for recruiting, the service is hoping that some extra cash and a few other changes will be enough of an incentive to entice qualified young people to sign up.

“We are still living the implications of 2020 and the onset of COVID when the school systems basically shut down,” Vereen explained. “We lost a full class of young men and women that we didn’t have contact with, face-to-face.”

As the country moves through the second year of the pandemic, it has made it more difficult to recruit in schools and at public events, and the competition to secure quality workers has intensified as young people weigh all of their more attractive and lucrative options.