The Army announced on Tuesday that it “surpassed” its fiscal year 2025 recruiting goal of bringing in 61,000 recruits, and there are still four months left to go.

This year’s goal is more than 10% higher than the 55,000 recruits targeted in fiscal 2024, demonstrating a surge in interest and enthusiasm for Army service. Recent recruiting momentum has seen average contracts per day exceeding last year’s levels by as much as 56% during the same period.

The Army has not reached its recruiting goals this early in the year since 2014, Army officials said in a statement.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll spoke about reaching their recruiting goal on Monday, while speaking on a panel at the AI Expo in Washington, D.C.

Army soldiers march in formation. (iStock)

In October 2023, the Army unveiled a series of sweeping changes to its recruiting enterprise, including an expanded focus on a larger share of the labor market and the creation of a specialized talent acquisition workforce.

The Army had surged medical providers to Military Entrance Processing Stations across the country to help make the enlistment process more efficient, and leveraged innovative new technologies to reach expanded audiences and help identify candidates interested in military service.

There was also a notable expansion of the branch’s Future Soldier Preparatory Course, which helps potential recruits overcome academic and physical fitness barriers to service, while allegedly “not sacrificing quality for quantity.”

Still, the U.S. military missed its recruiting goals by 41,000 in 2023.

In 2024, the Army announced it was cutting its force by 24,000 in a restructuring to “help the service fight in future wars.”

The almost 5% of jobs cut affected posts that remained empty, according to the Army.

Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.