Recruitment Rises 12.5% Despite Ongoing Challenges

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

Katie Helland Director of Military Accessions Policy Katie Helland speaks with members of the media throughout a panel on financial year 2025 recruiting goals at the Pentagon, Oct. 30, 2024.
Share:
×
Share
Copy Link
Email
Facebook
X.
LinkedIn.
WhatsApp

Download: Full Size (235.52 KB).
Credit: Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jackie Sanders, DOD.
VIRIN: 241030-D-XI929-1004

While speaking at a multiservice panel on 2025 hiring issues 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 said, the services had a 35% boost in written contracts, and the active components’ delayed entry program started FY 2025 with a 10% bigger pool.

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

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

Helland elaborated on those challenges by describing that, for the very first time considering that the metric has been tracked, most youths have never thought about the option of serving in the military.

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

To counter such obstacles, Helland stated the armed force has executed a medical pilot program that permits recruits to sign up with the military without a waiver for various health conditions – supplied they satisfy particular requirements. Additionally, there are service member preparation courses that prepare employees to meet the laborious requirements of military service. Moreover, DOD is seeking to reconnect with youth and their influencers by showing them the value of serving.

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

Panel Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder assists in a panel on 2025 recruiting goals at the Pentagon, Oct. 30, 2024.
Share:.
×.
Share.
Copy Link.
Email.
Facebook.
X.
LinkedIn.
WhatsApp

Download: Full Size (266.24 KB).
Credit: Flying Force Tech. Sgt. Jackie Sanders, DOD.
VIRIN: referall.us 241030-D-XI929-1016

” Youth today seek a larger function in their lives and desire jobs where they have greater participation in decision-making and can create a direct concrete impact,” she continued. “Military service uses all of this.”

Explaining that U.S. military service offers more than 250 professions and that it represents one of the most extremely educated organizations throughout the world and across all pay grades, Helland said the Defense Department is working hard to counter the narrative that joining the armed force is an alternative to going to college or “a choice of last hope.”

” We are working to reframe this story so that Americans understand that military service is a pathway to higher education and profession chances while safeguarding democracy and the liberties we love,” Helland said.

She added that DOD is reframing this narrative. For instance, the department’s Joint Advertising Marketing research and Studies program will soon release a campaign to construct familiarity with the American public about the value of military service. Plans are also continuing to have adult influencers advocate for military service.