'Pinch point' military job ad spend tops £18m

The Ministry of Defence is spending over £30m on recruitment advertising, the majority of which is designed to fill just under 2,000 difficult-to-recruit 'pinch point' trades, it has been revealed.

Figures revealed in Parliament show that in the current financial year, £18m has been approved for advertising for the 'pinch point' trades, which include bomb disposal experts, medical staff and intelligence personnel. The MoD is also seeking permission to spend a further £3m advertising to fill the positions.

MoD figures show that the biggest single pinch-point area is the army's Intelligence Corps, which is suffering a shortfall of 459 personnel between the ranks of Corporal and Major.

The army is seeking 1,164 personnel in the pinch-point trades overall, and is also said to be short of 23 "defence interrogators" as well as 44 intensive care nurses, 18 anaesthetists, and 50 GPs. Some 36 military working dog handlers are also needed.

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