With the unemployment rate at a 16-year high, some people are turning to the military to escape the teetering economy.

One of those people is Amy Castro, who will ring in the new year at boot camp.

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"I was going to take out a $40,000 student loan," Castro told KCRA-TV in Sacramento. "I want to go to college, but I really cannot afford it. I can't get a decent job."

All branches of the military are saying that their recruiting numbers have gone up.

Several recruits said the tight work force has made their decision about going into the military easier.

"At this point of time, with the economy where it is, no one is going to hire a student straight out of college even with a degree," said recruit Rebekah Wilson.

Army officials said it's not just the economy, but recent success in Iraq and new recruiting methods that have pushed numbers above previous years.

Some of the changes in strategy for recruiting include using video games and gaming events to get young people interested in the armed services.

In Ohio, Army Chief Warrant Officer Jack Reppart peddles his recruiting pitch like a seasoned salesman, scouring the downtrodden streets of northeast Ohio for potential takers.

He finds them just about everywhere: at county fairs and shopping malls, in high school classrooms and church pews. His mission is to sell the Ohio National Guard -- and as its ranks grow, so does Reppart's monthly income.

"The money is probably the motivator to keep me going even through retirement," said 44-year-old Reppart, who has pulled in about $24,000 from his recruiting efforts since 2005. "Don't get me wrong, I love being in the Guard. But if you had to rank things from one to five, money would be the top one."

The nation's bleak economic outlook is driving more young men and women to join the National Guard, which offers a $20,000 enlistment bonus and helps fund college tuition through a $50,000 student loan repayment program.

Reppart is among thousands of National Guard soldiers across the country who have turned recruiting into a lucrative side income, thanks to a pay-per-recruit volunteer initiative that awards soldiers up to $2,000 for each person they sign on board.

The Guard Recruiting Assistance Program, which kicked off in December 2005, is boosting recruitment efforts despite unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. G-RAP brought in about 12,000 recruits in 2006. In 2008, the program's successes surged to about 30,000 recruits nationwide.

G-RAP has doled out about $110 million since its inception, and about 140,000 Guard members across the country are tracking down recruits as active recruiting assistants.

"I live in an area where there's not a lot of jobs and not a lot of opportunity," said Reppart, who teaches computer classes at a local elementary school. "And so they saw this as a way to help with their career or their life."