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 regardless of a challenging and disinterested recruiting market.

Katie Helland Director employment of Military Accessions Policy Katie Helland speaks to members of the media throughout a panel on financial year 2025 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 concerns at the Pentagon previously this week, Director of Military Accession Policy Katie Helland stated that the services increased the variety of recruits from 200,000 in FY 2023 to 225,000 in FY 2024, which ended September 30.

Additionally, she said, employment the services had a 35% boost in composed contracts, and the active elements’ 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 develop off the momentum that we’ve gotten in 2024, » Helland said.

 » 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 propensity to serve, minimal familiarity with military chances, a competitive labor market and a declining eligibility among young people. »

Helland employment elaborated on those challenges by describing that, for the very first time considering that the metric has been tracked, a lot of young individuals have never ever thought about the choice of serving in the military.

The reasons behind that are multifold, Helland stated. Young Americans have fewer ties to buddies or family members who have served in the armed force. There is a declining existence 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 obstacles, employment Helland stated the military has actually implemented a medical pilot program that permits recruits to join the armed force without a waiver for various health conditions – supplied they fulfill certain requirements. Additionally, there are service member preparation courses that prepare employees to fulfill the laborious requirements of military service. Moreover, employment 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 must understand that there has actually never been a better time for them to pick military service, » Helland stated.

Panel Pentagon Press Secretary Flying Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder helps with a panel on financial year 2025 recruiting objectives at the Pentagon, Oct. 30, employment 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: employment 241030-D-XI929-1016

 » Youth today look for a bigger purpose in their lives and desire tasks where they have greater involvement in decision-making and can create a direct concrete effect, » she continued. « Military service offers all of this. »

Explaining that U.S. military service provides more than 250 professions which it represents among the most highly informed companies throughout the world and across all pay grades, Helland stated the Defense Department is striving to counter the story that signing up with the military is an alternative to participating in college or « an alternative of last option. »

 » We are working to reframe this story so that Americans understand that military service is a pathway to greater education and profession opportunities while protecting democracy and the freedoms we love, » Helland said.

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