U.S. Coast Guard Achieves Recruitment Turnaround

 

Over the last two fiscal years, the U.S. Coast Guard has witnessed a recruitment turnaround, and 2025 has been its best year in more than three decades.

For FY2025, the USCG not only managed to exceed recruitment targets by 21 percent - enlisting 5,204 active-duty service members against a target of 4,300 - it also achieved the highest accession numbers since 1991. It was the second year in a row the agency had achieved targets after enlisting 4,422 new service members in FY24.

Apart from active-duty servicemembers, the agency is also hailing success in accession of commissioned officers and reserves. During FY25, the USCG attracted 371 new commissioned officers, managing to achieve 101 percent of the overall goal and the third largest officer target achieved in its recorded history. In terms of reserves, the agency gained 777 reservists, representing 104 percent of the target of 750. It was the third year in a row that the agency has met its recruiting goals for the reserve force.

A critical factor that made the USCG achieve the unprecedented success in its hiring efforts during the year was the opening of seven new recruiting offices across seven states. Also instrumental is the agency’s Force Design 2028, approved by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in June, which is designed to drive transformational changes throughout the agency.

Under Force Design 2028, the USCG aims to grow its military workforce by at least 15,000 members by the end of FY28 to restore readiness, operate a growing fleet, and deploy new capabilities to meet increasing and evolving threats. The agency also intends to fix the mismatched balance across grade levels and specialties by moving away from the “outdated and ineffective” pyramid workforce structure that has existed for five decades.

“The Coast Guard far exceeded our recruiting goals in FY25, showing that more Americans want to serve in the Coast Guard than ever before,” said Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the Coast Guard. “Thanks to our recruiters for their great success. We aren’t just growing – we are bringing in the best talent from across the United States and building the workforce of the future.”

With a workforce of 56,000, the USCG is responsible for protecting and defending more than 100,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways and safeguarding an economic region covering 4.5 million square miles. Apart from protecting the marine transportation system, regulating and safeguarding ports and waterways, the agency has the task of drug interdiction, search and rescue and responding to natural and human-made disasters.