Modern recruiting is a competition for technical skills

Are Western militaries suffering recruit-quality problems similar to those described for the PLA?

Not to the same degree in this assessment; the concern is competition for scarce skills, with recruitment success varying between British services.

A question about reported PLA recruit-quality problems prompts a comparison with Western services. The assessment here is that Western recruit quality remains fairly high, while demanding more scarce skills creates competition with the civilian job market. Britain's Navy and Royal Marines are described as recruiting more successfully than the Army and RAF at the time of the recording. Attraction to flying does not automatically produce enough applicants for aircraft-maintenance work. Fitters illustrate a skilled and well-paid role that can be harder to sell to someone whose ambition is to become a pilot.