Recruitment Rises 12.5% Despite Ongoing Challenges

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

Katie Helland Director of Military Accessions Policy Katie Helland talks to members of the media throughout a panel on fiscal year 2025 recruiting objectives at the Pentagon, Oct. 30, 2024.
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Credit: employment Flying Force Tech. Sgt. Jackie Sanders, DOD.
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While speaking at a multiservice panel on 2025 hiring problems at the Pentagon earlier 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 said, the services had a 35% increase in composed agreements, and the active parts’ delayed entry program started FY 2025 with a 10% larger swimming pool.

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

” Nevertheless,” she continued, “we need to remain cautiously optimistic about the future recruiting operations as we continue to recruit in a market that has low youth tendency to serve, limited familiarity with military chances, a competitive labor market and a declining eligibility among young adults.”

Helland elaborated on those challenges by discussing that, for the very first time given that the metric has been tracked, the majority of youths have actually never ever thought about the alternative of serving in the armed force.

The factors behind that are multifold, employment Helland said. Young Americans have fewer ties to good friends or household members who have served in the armed force. There is a declining presence of veterans in our society. Approximately 77% of individuals between the ages of 17 and 24 require some type of waiver to serve due to any number of disqualifications.

To counter such challenges, Helland stated the armed force has actually implemented a medical pilot program that enables recruits to sign up with the armed force without a waiver for various – supplied they fulfill certain requirements. Additionally, there are service member prep courses that prepare recruits to meet 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 choose military service,” Helland said.

Panel Pentagon Press Secretary Flying Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder facilitates a panel on financial year 2025 recruiting goals at the Pentagon, Oct. 30, 2024.
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” Youth today look for a larger purpose in their lives and desire tasks where they have higher involvement in decision-making and can develop a direct tangible impact,” she continued. “Military service provides all of this.”

Explaining that U.S. military service offers more than 250 occupations and that it represents one of the most extremely educated companies throughout the world and employment across all pay grades, Helland said the Defense Department is striving to counter the narrative that joining the military is an alternative to participating in college or “a choice of last resort.”

” We are working to reframe this story so that Americans comprehend that military service is a path to greater education and profession chances while safeguarding democracy and the freedoms we hold dear,” Helland stated.

She added that DOD is reframing this narrative. For instance, the department’s Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies program will quickly launch a project to build familiarity with the American public about the value of military service. Plans are also continuing to have adult influencers advocate for military service.