Recruitment Rises 12.5% Despite Ongoing Challenges

The Defense Department’s armed services branches hired 12.5% more individuals in financial year 2024 than in the year prior in spite of a difficult and disinterested recruiting market.

Katie Helland Director of Military Accessions Policy Katie talks to members of the media during a panel on fiscal year 2025 recruiting objectives at the Pentagon, Oct. 30, employment 2024.
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While speaking at a multiservice panel on 2025 recruiting concerns at the Pentagon previously today, Director of Military Accession Policy Katie Helland said 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, the services had a 35% increase in written contracts, and the active parts’ postponed entry program started FY 2025 with a 10% bigger pool.

 » [The Office of the Secretary of Defense] and the services will continue to develop off the momentum that we’ve gotten in 2024, » Helland said.

 » Nevertheless, » she continued, « we require to remain very carefully positive about the future recruiting operations as we continue to recruit in a market that has low youth propensity to serve, restricted familiarity with military opportunities, a competitive labor market and a declining eligibility among young grownups. »

Helland elaborated on those difficulties by discussing that, for the very first time given that the metric has actually been tracked, the majority of young individuals have never ever considered the alternative of serving in the military.

The reasons behind that are multifold, Helland said. Young Americans have fewer ties to good friends or family members who have served in the military. There is a declining existence of veterans in our society. Approximately 77% of people in between the ages of 17 and employment 24 require some kind of waiver to serve due to any number of disqualifications.

To counter such challenges, Helland stated the military has implemented a medical pilot program that enables employees to sign up with the armed force without a waiver for numerous health conditions – provided they satisfy particular requirements. Additionally, there are service member preparation courses that prepare recruits to satisfy the exhausting requirements of military service. Moreover, DOD is seeking to reconnect with youth and their influencers by showing them the worth of serving.

 » The next generation of Americans to serve need to know that there has never been a much better time for them to pick military service, » Helland stated.

Panel Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder assists in a panel on fiscal year 2025 recruiting goals at the Pentagon, Oct. 30, 2024.
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 » Youth today seek a larger function in their lives and desire jobs where they have higher participation in decision-making and can develop a direct concrete effect, » she continued. « Military service uses all of this. »

Explaining that U.S. military service uses more than 250 professions and employment that it represents one of the most highly educated organizations throughout the world and employment across all pay grades, Helland stated the Defense Department is working hard to counter the story that signing up with the military is an alternative to attending college or « an alternative of last option. »

 » We are working to reframe this story so that Americans comprehend that military service is a path to greater education and career chances while protecting democracy and the liberties we hold dear, » Helland stated.

She included that DOD is reframing this narrative. For example, the department’s Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies program will quickly release a project to develop familiarity with the American public about the value of military service. Plans are also proceeding to have adult influencers promote for military service.