THOUSANDS more young people in Yorkshire have applied to join the Army despite the grim toll of losses in Afghanistan.
New figures show interest in a military career is growing as youth unemployment surges.
But Huddersfield’s MP Barry Sheerman last night predicted a drop in interest in the Army following the death of six soldiers from our region.
Cpl Jake Hartley, 20, of New Mill; Pte Anton Frampton, 20, of Longwood and Pte Daniel Wilford, 21, of Cowlersley were among six members of the Yorkshire Regiment killed by a huge Taliban bomb on March 6.
Overall, 407 British soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2001.
However, interest in a career in the Army is growing despite the death toll.
New figures show 11,315 Yorkshire people have applied to join the Army this year – up 13% on the 9,991 people from the region who put their names forward in 2007.
Barry Sheerman believes the high rate of youth unemployment explains the increase in applications.
“The economist in me agrees that recruitment does go up when there are fewer jobs in the civilian economy,” he said.
But Mr Sheerman last night urged recruiters to reject applicants who wanted to join for “the wrong reason”.
The Labour man said: “It’s a fine profession and I want people to join for the right reasons, but we do get these fluctuations when the economy is bad.
“The wrong reason is if you can’t get a job and joining up is the only thing you can do. I trust the highly experienced recruiters to choose young men and women on the basis of their aptitude for the job.
“I suspect those young people who are not of the right calibre don’t get in.”
Mr Sheerman added that he expected interest in recruitment to dip following the large loss of life on March 6.
“When there’s a horrific tragedy, recruitment goes down for a while,” said the veteran backbencher.
