The Army expects to exceed its recruiting goal this year, according to a senior Army leader, who said the overage in new contracts is cost-efficient and “better for young adults” who will be more likely to get the job they want when they want it.

“Things are looking real good this year; we anticipate we will have more folks than we will need,” Casey Wardynski, assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs, said Feb. 19 during a media roundtable at the Pentagon on Army recruiting initiatives.

On track to be 485,000 soldiers strong in the active Army by the end of fiscal 2020, Army leaders project there will be a surplus of more than 13,500 new contracts by the same date, Wardynski said. This allows the Army to place the potential soldiers in the delayed entry pool “and flow them into next year,” he said.

The surplus, he said, makes business more cost-effective because it creates a ready pipeline of people should the Army need to plus-up quickly for a contingency. “Our goal was to stay inside that curve and balance attrition, recruiting and growth,” which is where the U.S. Army Recruiting Command gets its mission.

More importantly, he said, it benefits the people in the pool who can expect to begin service in 2021.

“It’s better for young adults because it lets us place them in a higher percentage of the time in a job they really want,” Wardynski said. “The further out you can forecast that, the more likely it is we can put them into a training seat they really want to be in.”