Can a recession negatively affect military recruitment?

A major economic recession in the early 1970s, which was caused by the first oil crisis, resulted in mass unemployment among young people. While this was the case, the armed forces found it relatively easy to meet their recruiting goals. Not surprisingly, during that time, the idea of a lifetime military career was seen as being very attractive (Lescreve, 2000). On the other hand, the end of the 1990s saw a rapid growth in the economies of most Western countries. At the same time the armed forces of those countries were experiencing increasing difficulties in recruiting required numbers for their ranks (Lescreve, 2000). Hence, in most cases, a recession doesn’t seem to be able to have a negative effect on military recruitment.

References

Lescreve, F. (2000). Recruiting for the military when the economy is booming. In: Changing Mission for the 21^st century. 36th International Applied Military Psychology Symposium. Croatia, Split. Retrieved from http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA412525#page=146.