Navy grapples with at-sea shortages as recruiting lags

Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Over the past year, the Navy has had, on average, about 18,000 unfilled positions on its ships. The reason is pretty straightforward: there simply aren’t enough sailors in the service because of ongoing recruiting challenges.

In 2023, the Navy missed its recruiting goal by about 7,000 sailors. Nonetheless, officials say the picture appears to be improving: last year, the service onboarded 6,000 more uniformed service members than it did in 2022, and so far this year, it’s about 2,900 recruits ahead of where it was at the same point in 2023.

But those gains have not been enough to close manpower gaps at sea, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices