Sweden: Not enough recruits sign up for military service

After Sweden ended conscription last year, the military seems to have problems to recruit enough soldiers. Sweden's chiefs-of-staff had to admit in August that they had erred in counting how many part-time recruits had signed up to Sweden's Armed Forces. The number was not 2,700 - as originally reported - but 300. In a report, the chiefs-of-staff admitted confusing the 300 actual recruits with the target of 2,700 for the period.

Since switching to a professional military, Sweden had set a goal of recruiting 6,600 new soldiers: 3,900 on a full-time basis and 2,700 part-time.

The new goal for part-timers has been reduced to 2,000 in order to make-up for the recruitment gap caused by the blunder.

In July, newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported that the Swedish military was having great difficulty meeting its recruitment targets. Several recruits had given up during or just after initial training, it said.

At the time, the chiefs-of-staff recognised that they might have to ease entry requirements for new recruits.

Source: The Local.se: Sweden's military gaffe exposes large gap, 20 August 2011