Manpower for Military Occupations

Abstract

Manpower for Military Occupations evaluates the effects of the military’s selection process on the enlistment eligibility and job opportunities for young women and men from different backgrounds and demographic groups. This research would not have been possible without the “Profile of American Youth,” a large-scale project designed to assess the vocational aptitudes of the nation’s entry-level workforce. The Profile Study marked the first time a military qualification test, or any vocational aptitude test, had been administered to a nationally representative sample. An earlier monograph, Screening for Service (Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Installations, and Logistics, September 1984), studied the enlistment eligibility and military “participation rates” of different population groups. Manpower for Military Occupations is intended to complement the earlier effort by focusing more closely on the occupational placement system and its effects on those who might seek to enlist. In addition, the work attempts to explore changes that have taken place historically, particularly over the modern era, in the occupations and types of people needed by the Armed Services. Readers who are interested primarily in the technical content should be aware that the Services’ enlistment standards and occupational requirements, as well as the occupations themselves, are subject to change over time. It is also noteworthy that most details of the occupational placement system are likely to remain basically the same for many years to come.