Working for Uncle Sam-A Look at Members of the Armed Forces
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Working for Uncle Sam-a look at members of the Armed Forces The `career force' is growing rapidly, as almost half of recruits reenlist; in 1982, the total labor force included 1 .7 million men and women assigned to military duty in the United States CAROL BOYD LEON Individuals seeking work may consider the military to be not "substantively different" from civilian employment and attractive alternative to a civilian job-especially for thus concluded that military personnel should be counted in an ; those lacking employment experience, facing a tight labor national employment and labor force totals . Because the market, looking for a lifetime career . or having strong pa- civilian labor force includes only persons residing in the triotic feelings. More than 2 million men and women are United States . the Armed Forces count is similarly re- in the Armed Forces . This article compares the demographic stricted . and occupational characteristics of the 1 .7 million stationed Who are counted? in the United States with those of civilian workers .' are obtained by the It is especially appropriate to examine data on military Monthly data on the Armed Forces personnel, because at the beginning of 1983 . the Bureau of Bureau of the Census from the Department of Defense . The Labor Statistics began publishing an unemployment rate Armed Forces count includes persons on active duty in either which includes the resident Armed Forces in the labor force the regular military or the reserve forces for an extended count . Other statistical series including the resident Armed period. More specifically . six groups are included in the personnel on Forces, such as labor force participation rates . the number 1982 count of 2 .2 million: ( I) total military of employed, and employment-population ratios . also be- active duty ; (2) Marine reserve forces on active duty train- Army reserve forces on came available at that time. Calculations have been made ing for 6 months or longer; (3) or longer; (4) Air Force for each of these series back to 1950 .2 active duty training for 4 months These statistical series were made available in accordance reserve personnel on tours of duty lasting a minimum of 12 with the recommendations of the National Commission on months; (5) National Guard personnel on initial active duty Employment and Unemployment Statistics, which was es- training ; and (6) Coast Guard personnel on active duty . quarterly, tablished in 1978 to study the Nation's labor force data Demographic characteristics, which are gathered Forces, system with regard to its accuracy and relevance to current are applied to the monthly counts of the total Armed the total conditions . The Commission determined that, with the change The resident Armed Forces is a subgroup of to a volunteer system in 1973, military employment was military and consists of military personnel stationed in any of the 50 States. This includes about two-thirds of Army personnel, 80 percent of the Navy and the Air Force, 85 Carol Boyd Leon is en economist in the Division of Employment and percent of the Marines, and virtually all Coast Guard per- Unemployment Analysis, Office of Employment and Unemployment Sta- tistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics . sonnel . Included in the count of Navy personnel are those MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW July 1984 o Working for Uncle Sum on ships homeported in the United States .' percentage point below the civilian-based rate, and even the largest changes in the size of the military from month to Trends in size and composition month have made only a one-tenth of a point difference in In the post-World War II period, the total active-duty the over-the-month movement of the overall unemployment Armed Forces ranged from a low of 1 .4 million in 1948 to rate . 3 .6 million in 1952 and 3.5 million in 1968 and 1969. Between 1969 and 1979, this number dropped to 2.1 mil- Service, gender, and minority status lion, before inching upward to 2 .2 million in 1982 . The The Army is the largest branch of the resident Armed resident Armed Forces ranged from 1 .2 million in 1950 at Forces with about 545,000 members, or 33 percent of the the inception of the data series to 2 .4 million in 1952 and resident military . The next largest is the Air Force's 460,000, 2.3 million in 1968 . In 1979, the resident military fell to or 28 percent, closely followed by the Navy's 455,000, or slightly less than 1 .6 million, edging up to 1 .7 million in 27 percent. About 1 I percent of the resident Armed Forces 1982 . (See table 1 .) While changes in the size of the two are in the Marine Corps, with 165,000 members, and the Armed Forces counts are directly related, the impact of a Coast Guard, with 40,000, makes up 2 percent. 5 military buildup during periods of armed conflict is, of course, The number of women in the resident military is relatively greatest on the number stationed overseas and therefore has small with a total of only about 140,000 in 1982. They were a larger effect on the total Armed Forces . outnumbered by men 1 I to 1 . However, military women Since 1973, monthly changes in the size of the services numbered less than 30 .000 in 1962 . and the ratio of male- have been fairly small-generally no more than 5 .000 and to-female personnel declined from 70 to I in that year to rarely more than 20,000 . These increases and decreases have 43 to I in 1972. Over the same period . the ratio among virtually no effect on the unemployment rate . In fact. the civilian workers dropped from 2 to I to 1 .3 to I . With the unemployment rate which includes the resident Armed Forces change to an all-volunteer force in 1973, women joined the in the labor force base runs just one or two-tenths of a military at an increasing rate, reflecting stepped-up recruit- Table 1 . Members of the Armed Forces by selected characteristics, 1950-82 annual averages [Num bers in thousands] Total Armed Forces Resident Armed Forces Percent of the Women Y ear total Percent of total Percent the Number noninstitutional Total of employment Total resident population Armed Forces 1950 . 1 .649 1 .5 1 .169 1 .9 19 1.6 1951 . 3.098 2.9 2.143 3.5 31 1 .4 1952 . 3.593 3.3 2.386 3.8 38 1.6 1953 . 3.547 3.2 2.231 3.5 36 1.6 1954 . 3.350 3.0 2.142 3.4 33 1.5 1955 . 3.048 2.7 2.064 3.2 31 1.5 1956 . 2.856 3.4 1 .965 3.0 28 1.4 1957 . 2.799 2.4 1 .948 3.0 27 1.4 1958 . 2.636 2.3 1 .847 2.8 27 1 .5 1959 . 2.551 2.2 1,788 2.7 27 1.5 1960 . 2.514 2.1 1,861 2.8 28 1 .5 1961 . 2.572 2.1 1 .900 2.8 29 1.5 1962 . 2.827 2.3 2.061 3.0 29 1.4 1963 . 2.737 2.2 2.006 2.9 27 1.3 1964 . 2.738 2.2 2.018 2.8 27 1 .3 1965 . 2 .722 2 .1 1,946 2 .7 27 1 .4 1966 . 3.122 2.4 2.122 2.8 30 1.4 1967 . 3.446 2.6 2,218 2.9 32 1.4 1968 . 3.534 2.6 2.253 2.9 34 1.5 1969 . 3.506 2.5 2.238 2.8 34 1.5 1970 . 3.188 2.3 2,118 2.6 37 1.7 1971 . 2.816 2.0 1,973 2.4 39 2.0 1972 . 2.449 1 .7 1,813 2.2 41 2.3 1973 . 2.326 1 .6 1,774 2.0 49 2.8 1974 . 2,229 1 .5 1,721 1 .9 63 3.7 1975 . 2.180 1 .4 1,678 1 .9 78 4.6 1976 . 2.144 1 .4 1,668 1 .8 86 5.2 1977 . 2.133 1 .3 1,656 1 .8 92 5.6 1978 . 2,117 1 .3 1,631 1 .7 100 6.1 1979 . 2,088 1 .3 1,597 1 .6 108 6.8 1980 . 2.102 1 .2 1,604 1 .6 134 7.7 1981 . 2,142 1 .2 1,645 1 .6 133 8.1 1982 . 2,180 1 .2 1,668 1 .6 139 8.3 ing efforts for both men and women, as well as women's atively smaller than their number in the population . In contrast, growing participation in the labor force in general . How- the proportion of black men in the Armed Forces is twice ever, since 1979, there has been no growth in the civilian that among civilian workers, and the ratio is even a bit labor force participation of women under 25, and women's higher for black women . Before the late 1960's, the rep- entrance into the Armed Forces has slowed . Despite the resentation of black men in the Armed Forces was dispro- increasing number of women in the military, their repre- portionately low when compared with their share of civilian sentation in the Armed Forces still does not come anywhere male employment . Noting the increasing percentage of blacks near their share of civilian employment . The following tab- in the military since the mid-1960's, one analyst attributed ulation shows actual and projected numbers of enlisted women it to three factors: "(1) a dramatic increase over time in during selected fiscal years :e the proportion of blacks found eligible for military ser- Numbers, in Percent of all vice; (2) particularly high unemployment rates that plagued thousands enlisted members the young black population during the beginning of the 1972 1982 1987 /972 1982 /987 volunteer force; and (3) a lag in earning potential for young Total .