Recruitment Rises 12.5% Despite Ongoing Challenges

The Defense Department’s armed services branches hired 12.5% more people in 2024 than in the year prior despite a challenging and indifferent recruiting market.

Katie Helland Director of Military Accessions Policy Katie Helland employment talks to members of the media throughout a panel on fiscal year 2025 recruiting goals at the Pentagon, Oct. 30, 2024.
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Credit: Flying Force Tech. Sgt. Jackie Sanders, DOD.
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While speaking at a multiservice panel on 2025 recruiting problems at the Pentagon previously today, Director of Military Accession Policy Katie Helland stated that the services increased the variety of employees from 200,000 in FY 2023 to 225,000 in FY 2024, which ended September 30.

Additionally, she stated, employment the services had a 35% increase in composed agreements, and the active elements’ postponed entry program began FY 2025 with a 10% larger pool.

” [The Office of the Secretary of Defense] and the services will continue to develop off the momentum that we have actually acquired in 2024,” Helland said.

” Nevertheless,” she continued, “we need to stay carefully positive about the future recruiting operations as we continue to hire in a market that has low youth propensity to serve, minimal familiarity with military chances, a competitive labor market and a decreasing eligibility among young people.”

Helland elaborated on those difficulties by explaining that, for the very first time because the metric has actually been tracked, a lot of young individuals have actually never thought about the choice of serving in the armed force.

The factors behind that are multifold, Helland stated. Young Americans have less ties to pals or family members who have actually served in the armed force. There is a declining presence of veterans in our society. Approximately 77% of individuals in between the ages of 17 and 24 need some kind of waiver to serve due to any number of disqualifications.

To counter such obstacles, Helland said the military has carried out a medical pilot program that allows recruits to join the armed force without a waiver for numerous health conditions – provided they fulfill particular requirements. Additionally, there are service member prep courses that prepare recruits to satisfy the laborious requirements of military service. Moreover, DOD is looking for to reconnect with youth and their influencers by revealing them the worth of serving.

” The next generation of Americans to serve need to understand that there has never ever been a much better time for them to select military service,” Helland said.

Panel Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder helps with a panel on fiscal year 2025 recruiting goals at the Pentagon, Oct. 30, employment 2024.
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” Youth today look for a bigger function in their lives and desire tasks where they have greater participation in decision-making and can develop a direct concrete impact,” she continued. “Military service uses all of this.”

Explaining that U.S. military service provides more than 250 occupations which it represents among the most extremely informed organizations throughout the world and employment throughout all pay grades, Helland stated the Defense Department is striving to counter the story that joining the armed force is an alternative to participating in college or “a choice of last hope.”

” We are working to reframe this narrative so that Americans comprehend that military service is a pathway to higher education and profession chances while defending democracy and the liberties we hold dear,” said.

She added that DOD is reframing this story. For instance, the department’s Joint Advertising Marketing research and Studies program will quickly release a project to develop familiarity with the American public about the worth of military service. Plans are also proceeding to have adult influencers advocate for military service.