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 difficult and disinterested recruiting market.
Katie Helland Director of Military Accessions Policy Katie Helland speaks to members of the media during a panel on financial 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 hiring concerns at the Pentagon earlier 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, employment she stated, the services had a 35% boost in written contracts, and the active components' postponed entry program started FY 2025 with a 10% bigger swimming pool.
" [The Office of the Secretary of Defense] and the services will continue to construct off the momentum that we've gotten in 2024," Helland said.
" Nevertheless," she continued, "we require to remain carefully optimistic 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 people."
Helland elaborated on those difficulties by describing that, for the very first time given that the metric has actually been tracked, the majority of young people have never ever thought about the alternative of serving in the military.
The reasons behind that are multifold, Helland said. Young Americans have less ties to good friends or family members who have served in the armed force. There is a declining presence of veterans in our society. Approximately 77% of people in between the ages of 17 and employment 24 need some type of waiver to serve due to any number of disqualifications.
To counter such challenges, Helland said the military has executed a medical pilot program that allows recruits to sign up with the military without a waiver for various - offered they satisfy specific requirements. Additionally, there are service member prep courses that prepare recruits to meet the difficult requirements of military service. Moreover, DOD is looking for to reconnect with youth and their influencers by showing them the worth of serving.
" The next generation of Americans to serve should know that there has actually never ever been a better time for them to choose military service," Helland said.
Panel Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder helps with a panel on financial year 2025 recruiting goals at the Pentagon, Oct. 30, 2024.
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" Youth today look for a bigger function in their lives and desire jobs where they have higher involvement in decision-making and can create a direct tangible impact," she continued. "Military service provides all of this."
Explaining that U.S. military service uses more than 250 occupations which it represents one of the most extremely educated companies throughout the world and across all pay grades, Helland stated the Defense Department is working hard to counter the narrative that signing up with the military is an alternative to going to college or "an alternative of last resort."
" We are working to reframe this narrative so that Americans comprehend that military service is a pathway to higher education and profession opportunities while safeguarding democracy and the liberties we hold dear," Helland said.
She included that DOD is reframing this story. For employment example, employment the department's Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies program will quickly introduce a project to build familiarity with the American public about the value of military service. Plans are likewise continuing to have adult influencers promote for military service.
