Help Wanted: How About the Army, or Peace Corps?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Topics: Economy, Other
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There’s one thing you can count on in a recession; even if almost no one else is hiring, the U.S. military is. As a consequence, all branches of the service are meeting or exceeding their goals. And the recession has been good for other forms of voluntary service to the country too. ideastream®’s Ida Lieszkovszky has the latest installment in our Help Wanted series.

39 old Kevin Starbuck assumed he’d be comfortably nestled in a regular job at this point in his life. He didn’t think he’d be running 7 miles a day to train for the army.

Starbuck: I shouldn’t say never, but I probably would’ve never done it.

Starbuck served in the Navy for 13 years after he got out of high school. Then he got a degree in mechanical engineering, followed by a comfy job at International Automotive Components. But when the automotive industry tanked, several rounds of layoffs followed, and the ax eventually fell on Starbuck’s team. Now he’s nervous about retirement, and after two months of unemployment and over a hundred job applications, he says going back to the military started to look better and better.

Starbuck: I think the whole retirement thing is a little scary because I’ve been working for 10 years and I’ve got a 401k but it’s not nothing that I can retire on so I thought the reserves I’d have a pretty good pension when I do make it to the 20 year mark, maybe more so I think that’s a pretty safe bet. 

And Starbuck’s not the only one. The army has been finding it really easy to fill their quotas this year.

Powers: I know historically when the economy is down an interest in service is up.

That’s Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Powers, commander of the Cleveland Army Recruiting Battalion. Not only is recruitment up, so is retention. And so many have re-upped in the Navy that it has been able to lowers it’s recruitment goals.

Petty Officer Quintince Harper is one of them.  He spent his Labor Day weekend recruiting at the Cleveland Air Show.

Harper says for him, staying in is a no-brainer.

Harper: I got twelve more years to go, And with the way the economy is right now I’d be kinda scared to get out.

The armed forces aren’t the only alternatives to civilian jobs that are getting a second look these days. Applications are up 12 percent for the Peace Corps this year; and and up 40 percent for Teach for America in the past year. 

But when they’re done with their service to the country, some of the Peace Corps volunteers are hitting a wall. Hope Latiak just got back to Cleveland after two years as a volunteer in Uganda. She had 11 years of experience in fund raising and counseling before joining the Peace Corps. She’s out now, and unemployed. At least her time in Uganda has helped put things in perspective.

Latiak: Seeing people struggle coming back during this sort of an economy is difficult although for me it doesn’t seem so bad because where I was there wasn’t even an economy at all. Sometimes I feel like at least we have an economy.

Latiak says for now she’s just enjoying being back home.

More In This Series...

This feature is part of the series Help Wanted.