OCS 11AUG25 IWC BOARD // Nerd Thunderdome 2025

[exNavyOffRec]

This may be a positive sign

Navy hits historic recruiting numbers with more ads, tattoo approvals

Fiscal 2025 was the best recruiting year for the Navy since 2002. The head of Navy recruiting credited the feat, in part, to streamlining tattoo approvals.

www.navytimes.com

"In a roundtable discussion with reporters Monday prior to the end of the fiscal year, Rear Adm. James Waters, head of Navy recruiting command, revealed that the service had achieved surpluses in every recruiting category, including officers, enlisted and Reserve — with enough in the Delayed Entry Program to make up about one-fourth of the recruiting mission for fiscal 2026."

"In total, the Navy brought in 44,096 future sailors in fiscal 2025, the service announced on Wednesday — nearly 3,500 more than its target of 40,600. That’s more than any year since 2002."

He mentions officers but this is 99% all about enlisted, there isn't an issue hitting officer recruiting goals.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

The job market is in the toilet. When I went to MEPS, I a lot of people were there because they couldn’t find work—some were even re-enlisting.

I am in corporate recruiting and I get weekly numbers on layoffs, unemployment, quits, etc... and I can tell you that your statement is incorrect. On the corporate side we are seeing less qualified applicants for open roles. The filing for unemployment is steady, the unemployment rate is steady, the quit rate is steady and it has been that way for a while. The hiring timeline is slower which can be attributed to taking longer to get qualified applicants to apply to open roles.

IT is the one that is having issues thanks to AI becoming more prevalent.

Recruiter jobs are on the rise and that indicates hiring is ramping up.

The career events I go to are filing up with employers faster then they have before as they are needing to hire people and the last career fair I was at 2 weeks ago saw a dramatic drop in people looking for jobs.

What I am seeing is many people applying for jobs they aren't qualified for, recent college grads with business degrees thinking they are going to step into a 100K job with no experience and surprised when they are told what they are qualified for is quite a bit less than 100K.

 

[OceanBlue]

My recruiter stated that the shutdown will not impact the release of results. The military personnel involved in the bureaucratic process for releasing results are still coming into work and recruiters are still in the office.

Hopefully we hear back this week!

 

[hclark1821]

Hopefully we hear back this week!

Still not holding my breath but fingers crossed!!!!