New recruits are joining the military in big numbers, but not for reason Hegseth says

The economy is driving young Americans' enlistments, according to Pentagon data.

By lunchtime at a northern Virginia high school, the hallway outside the cafeteria buzzed with students finishing homework, joking with friends and playing video games.

Off to the side, Tech Sgt. Omar Herrera, an Air Force recruiter, had arranged his table with the standard fare of glossy brochures, foam model fighter jets and Air and Space Force-branded water bottles students could earn with a round of pushups.

The scene was strikingly low-key, almost at odds with the life-altering decision many of the teenagers wandering past his table were weighing. When they stopped, Herrera answered questions and explained the Air Force's job opportunities with an encyclopedic knowledge of making a career out of the military, which he was passionate about and eager to share.

By the time Herrera met with dozens of prospective recruits, much of the Air Force's annual recruitment quota was already complete. The recruiting business is good after years of shortfalls.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran, has repeatedly elevated military recruiting successes into the marquee achievement of his tenure and folded recruiting, long treated as an apolitical function of the military, into a broader culture-war proxy.

In remarks to roughly two dozen of the military's top recruiters at the Pentagon in December, Hegseth framed improved enlistment numbers as a reflection of confidence in the administration.

"You can talk about polls, you can talk about money, but men and women willing to serve and put on the uniform is a reflection of the belief they have in civilian leadership and military leadership," he told them.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, in a statement to ABC News, shared that same sentiment, adding that, "Americans everywhere are prouder than ever to serve in our unmatched military that prioritizes lethality, merit, and protecting our nation from those who seek to harm it."

Yet the military has been selling effectively the same proposition since the U.S. abandoned the draft and fully transitioned to an all-volunteer force in 1973: job stability and benefits, with a sense of adventure to sweeten the deal. What has changed, however, is the politics surrounding that bargain.

The military’s recruiting rebound is real, but the reasons behind it are far less political than Hegseth's framing suggests. ABC News interviewed nearly 40 recruits and prospective recruits at different stages of enlistment, along with two dozen recruiters across the military and current and former defense officials, and found young Americans are still largely making the same calculation that has driven enlistment for decades: steady pay, education benefits, job training and a direct path to the middle class.

The Pentagon's own data backs that up too, with financial compensation and benefits ranking as a top reason for joining the military.

The recruitment turnaround also began before President Donald Trump returned to office and has been aided by changes under former President Joe Biden to how the Pentagon finds and qualifies recruits.