Research for Hard-to-Fill Billets

This paper investigated the effects on continuation of serving in a "hard-to-fill" billet, serving in a preferred billet, and homebasing for both initial enlistees and career sailors. Using a location based definition of hard-to-fill billets, we found that Jacksonville was the most preferred location while Lemoore was the least preferred. For careerists, continuation in "good" locations was 1.2 percentage points higher than in "bad" locations. We didn't find any location effect for initial enlistees. The results show that those serving in a preferred billet had continuation rates that were 2.1 and 0.8 percentage points higher for initial enlistees and careerists, respectively. As for homebasing, we found that career sailors with children who homebase have a continuation rate that is 1.4 percentage points higher than those all other careerists. For initial enlistees with children, we found no effect on continuation.