Why young people are not interested in a job in armed forces

• With the demographic change taking place all over European societies, the number of young people entering the labor market is declining. As a result, the armed forces of Westernpostindustrial societies are facing severe recruitment problems and find themselves in ever more direct competition with the private sector to attract the best candidates. To offset the shrinking base of recruitment, they have to become more attractive to potential recruits and to increase the number of candidates in previously under-represented segments, particularly women. The paper presents selected results from an online survey carried out between Spring 2015 and December 2016 in 6 countries (Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland) among samples of young people. Following previous papers which dealt with the attractiveness of a military career among young people in general, and women and ethnic-cultural minorities in particular, this paper analyzes various factors that, presently, deter a lot of young women to consider joining the armed forces. The multinational survey on which the analyses are based is part of a collaborative research project conducted within the framework of the European Defense Agency on the impact of demographic change on the recruitment and retention of personnel in European armed forces.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Ledarskap under påfrestande förhållanden

Ledarskap under påfrestande förhållanden

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)