Coast Guard: Progress Made to Address Recruiting Challenges but Additional Actions Needed
Fast Facts
The Coast Guard employs over 39,000 active-duty military service members. It must recruit to maintain the size of its workforce.
The Coast Guard missed its recruiting targets from 2019-2023. In 2024, it beat its recruiting target after increasing recruiting offices, marketing, and other outreach efforts.
The Coast Guard could do more to assess which of these efforts worked. Additional analyses, for example, could help determine cost effectiveness.
Coast Guard recruiters also identified challenges with their training, IT resources, and the recruiting website.
Our recommendations address these issues.
Highlights
What GAO Found
In 2024, the Coast Guard took additional actions to reach potential recruits by expanding the number of recruiting office locations, initiating new outreach efforts, offering bonuses to eligible recruits, and increasing marketing efforts. In recent years, it also revised enlistment eligibility standards and began to address challenges with the medical waiver review process, such as hiring additional medical staff to review waiver requests. Collectively, these efforts contributed to the Coast Guard exceeding its recruiting target of 4200 enlisted personnel by more than 200 in fiscal year 2024, but additional opportunities and challenges remain. For example, the Coast Guard has not fully assessed how its initiatives contribute to recruiting results. Additional data collection or analyses, such as determining the cost effectiveness of certain efforts, could help the Coast Guard make evidence-based decisions regarding any further changes needed.
Example of Coast Guard Recruiting Outreach
The Coast Guard also took steps in fiscal year 2024 to enhance recruiter effectiveness. This entailed initiating a recruiter incentive pay program, offering a new career track for recruiting specialists, and increasing recruiter support resources. However, recruiter training has been conducted virtually since the COVID-19 pandemic. Recruiters stated that the virtual format was not as effective as in-person training, especially for practicing key skills such as public speaking. Returning to an in-person or hybrid format would help recruiters model real-world interactions and would better align with other military services.
In addition, recruiters stated that their offices faced a variety of IT challenges, including issues with computers, equipment, and system outages, but the Coast Guard does not have a mechanism to monitor or fully address them. Further, the recruiting website had persistent technical challenges, and the service does not routinely monitor the site to ensure it is properly functioning. As a primary access point for potential recruits, maintaining a fully operational website and addressing any technical issues in a timely manner is critical. By monitoring data on technology issues and downtime, the Coast Guard would be better positioned to identify and resolve IT-related challenges and help prevent extended service delays that may impact recruiter effectiveness.
Why GAO Did This Study
The Coast Guard is a multi-mission maritime military service within the Department of Homeland Security. In fiscal year 2024, it employed over 39,000 active-duty service members; about 30,600 were enlisted personnel. The service's ability to recruit qualified enlisted personnel is critical to maintaining its readiness and morale. However, the Coast Guard missed its military recruiting targets from fiscal years 2019 through 2023.
GAO was asked to examine the Coast Guard's recruitment efforts. This report examines Coast Guard actions taken to (1) meet recruitment goals for enlisted personnel, and (2) enhance recruiter effectiveness.
GAO identified Coast Guard recruiting office locations and reviewed recent outreach efforts and initiatives. GAO also reviewed recruitment-related documentation. This included policies and guidance on enlistment eligibility, medical standards, and eligibility waivers. In addition, GAO interviewed officials at headquarters and at five selected recruiting offices about recruitment processes and challenges.
Recommendations
GAO is making four recommendations to the Coast Guard: (1) further assess how recruiting and outreach activities contribute to annual results, (2) implement recruiter training in an in-person or hybrid format, (3) implement mechanisms to monitor and resolve IT issues with recruiter tools and systems, and (4) develop a process to routinely monitor and analyze recruiting website availability. The Department of Homeland Security concurred with these recommendations.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| United States Coast Guard | The Commandant of the Coast Guard should further assess how its recruiting and outreach activities contribute to annual recruitment results. (Recommendation 1) |
The Coast Guard concurred with this recommendation. In May 2025, the Coast Guard said it planned to continue its efforts to modernize its operations and work with its partners to develop surveys, analytic capabilities, and budget forecasting tools to maximize the impact of available funding, advertising, and personnel. According to the Coast Guard, the timeline for full implementation of these efforts will be impacted by the need to stabilize workforce projections and recruiting locations. In a November 2025 update, the Coast Guard reported continued efforts in these areas and projected an estimated completion date of September 30, 2026. We continue to monitor these efforts, as well as annual Coast Guard recruiting goals and projections.
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| United States Coast Guard | The Commandant of the Coast Guard should implement recruiter training in an in-person or hybrid format. (Recommendation 2) |
The Coast Guard concurred with this recommendation. In May 2025, the Coast Guard said it is working to develop a dedicated Recruiter Training location and is conducting a full-scale review of recruiter curriculum, including evaluating the impact of returning to a hybrid training model for the person-to-person portion of recruiter training. As of November 2025, the Coast Guard reported ongoing construction of an in-person recruiter training facility and continued efforts to return to a hybrid training model for the person-to-person portion of talent acquisition efforts. Officials previously estimated completing these activities by March 31, 2026. As of February 2026, we are in the process of following up to obtain additional information.
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| United States Coast Guard | The Commandant of the Coast Guard should implement mechanisms to monitor and resolve IT issues for recruiter tools and systems. (Recommendation 3) |
The Coast Guard concurred with this recommendation. In November 2025, the Coast Guard reported that efforts were underway to monitor and resolve IT issues affecting recruiter tools and systems, receiving support from the C5I Service Center and contractor vendor(s), and other relevant parties. According to the Coast Guard, a key focus remains on the routine monitoring and analysis of recruiting website availability and load speed, particularly on mobile devices. Specific actions identified include implementing baseline monitoring using Amazon CloudWatch and configuring alerting mechanisms for outages and load issues, as well as migrating the Coast Guard recruiting website to another software platform that enables automated notifications and email alerts in the event of degraded performance. Officials previously estimated they would complete these actions by December 31, 2025. As of February 2026, we are in the process of following up to obtain additional information.
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| United States Coast Guard | The Commandant of the Coast Guard should develop a process to routinely monitor and analyze recruiting website availability and load speed to optimize performance, including on mobile devices. (Recommendation 4) |
The Coast Guard concurred with this recommendation. In May 2025, the Coast Guard said it plans to implement real-time alerting systems to promptly notify when the GoCoastGuard.com website experiences performance degradation to ensure a seamless user experience. The Coast Guard will also explore the development of performance metrics and benchmarks to assess website availability and performance. In a November 2025 update, the Coast Guard reported that it is continuing efforts to establish a process to routinely assess recruiter system monitoring capabilities through a digital experience effort. According to the Coast Guard, this effort will enable proactively identifying and addressing outages impacting recruiting functions, including from mobile devices. At that time, officials stated that the project was in development with a trial group and was estimated to be completed by December 31, 2025. As of February 2026, we are in the process of following up to obtain additional information.
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