Whatever recruitment pool the Outfit still has, it has stopped it's membership from shrinking by more than half over the last 15-20 years. All the of the NY families have kept their memberships stable over that time. Going by the latest estimates, the smallest NY family is 4 times the size of the Outfit.
In their defense, they've always kind of bastardized traditional LCN (as least as Lucky and company set it up). Aren't made guys either 1) upper echelon, 2) middle management, or 3) well respected/ tenured soldiers?
I've always had mixed feelings on the shrinking hiring pool argument. There are tens of thousands of Italians in places like Philly, Chicago, Detroit, New England. I know that most are assimilated, but some kids will still want to be dope dealers (which seems like the future for alot of these street gangs). Made guys want earners so their envelopes get fatter. You'd think at some point they brush shoulders with younger crooks, maybe even college educated ones. So take a kid under your wing, school him on the gambling, other rackets, feel him out for loyalty (which is just as much a risk as anybody in the life these days), and if he works he works. They don't know the street cause they grew up in suburbs but seems like it can be taught over time. Plenty of wiseguys aren't from "the neighborhood".
That being said, when I hopefully open my own law practice some day, I won't be limiting my intern hiring to only full blooded (or close) Italians. Maybe it's harder in practice.
