People struggling to find jobs in the bad economy are turning to the military for a paycheck.

Recruiters say that they are seeing more people coming through their doors and that more recruits have college degrees, have been laid off or had once decided against a military career but are returning to the idea.

Although most recruits are still under age 25, recruiters say many young Americans don't qualify for service because of medical or legal issues. So, laid-off workers and others help keep the ranks full.

"We're seeing more professionals saying, 'Hey, I don't want to lose my house,' " said Sgt. Andrew Angarita, an Army recruiter in Phoenix.

A local Air Force recruiter has handled a laid-off car mechanic, a laid-off heating and air-conditioning technician and a student two years into a college fire-science course. That student left school and enlisted when he realized cities wouldn't be hiring new firefighters until the economy improved.

The recession is "having an enormous impact on our recruiting," said Cmdr. Joseph McInerney, Navy recruiting liaison to the chief of naval operations.

All branches of the service, including reserves, either met or surpassed their national recruiting goals last year, and the trend continued in the first months of this year.

The Department of Defense has missed its combined active-duty recruiting goals only three times since 1980: in 1998, 1999 and 2005. The individual branches of the service have had scattered off-years.

Recruitment numbers in Arizona have been increasing or holding steady.

The Army went from 1,732 in fiscal 2006 to 2,251 in 2008. The Air Force went from 599 to 589 in that same time and was at 522 at the end of May, with four months left in its recruiting year.

The Marine Corps increased from 1,000 to 1,080, beating its combined goals for those years by 116 percent. The Navy went from 880 in 2006 to 929 last year.

The influx of applicants has allowed the military to be more selective. And it's not like anyone who has completely run out of prospects can just walk into a recruiting office and get a job.

Maj. Tom Hodge, commanding officer of the Marine recruiting station in Phoenix, said the struggling economy has a lot of people in the Valley hunting for new careers.

Hodge said that places the Marines in a "unique position" to increase their recruiting standards.

Curtis Gilroy, the Pentagon's director of recruiting policy, says it's difficult to fill the military's recruiting needs by relying solely on its key category of people in their late teens to mid-20s.

Gilroy told Congress in March that a majority of 17- to 24-year-olds don't qualify.

"It is an unfortunate fact that much of the contemporary youth population is currently ineligible to serve," he said.

According to Gilroy's estimates, about 35 percent don't meet medical standards and many are overweight. About 18 percent have drug or alcohol problems, 5 percent have criminal records and 6 percent have too many dependents. About 9 percent fall into the lowest aptitude category, and 10 percent are in college. That leaves about 15 percent of the target group for the military to pursue, or 25 percent including college students.

Eileen Lainez, a Department of Defense spokeswoman, said the only change in recruiting standards is an increase in allowable age from 35 to 42 in 2006.

Military recruiting is a complicated process of finding enough people to fill all the jobs that need to be filled.

There is a battery of tests, both physical and mental, plus a background check. When the screening is completed, applicants see a list of jobs they are qualified for. There can be several months of waiting, depending on when particular jobs are available and when the military wants people to ship.

A new recruit earns about $33,700 a year if living off-base and receives a food and housing allowance, Lainez said.

There are also signing and re-enlistment bonuses and extra pay for specialist duty such as special forces. Military personnel also receive medical coverage and money for education.

Lainez said that recruiting goals have been met during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, citing patriotism as a key factor.

That was the case for Mark Tice, 18, a recent graduate of Thunderbird High School in Phoenix. He ships out for training in October and will become a communications specialist.

"I basically had the blood of a soldier running through me," he said.

Recruiters also say that the bad economy has persuaded some people to take a second look at the military career they may have considered before. And people who have been in the military and left are looking at joining again, possibly in another service branch.

"A lot of people laid off are calling me. A lot people who used to be in the military are calling me," said Staff Sgt. Ernest Rock, an Air Force recruiter in Phoenix.