The Air Force’s promotion rate for new technical sergeants is holding steady in 2026 at around one-quarter of those eligible—but a sharp decline in the pool of those considered means the total number of new E-6s will be much lower.
Air Force technical sergeants
The Air Force’s selection rate for promotions to technical sergeant neared 20 percent in 2024, bouncing back from historically low rates the previous two years while still trailing the highs of the late 2010s.
Out of 36,913 eligible Air Force staff sergeants, just 5,354 (14.5 percent) were selected for promotion to technical sergeant this year, the Air Force announced June 29. The rate is the lowest since 1996.
A few days after warning that promotion rates for enlisted noncommissioned officers were likely to drop over the next several years, the Air Force Personnel Center announced the statistics from the 22E6 promotion cycle July 12—with the fewest number of Airmen getting promoted to technical ...