The Defense Department's armed services branches recruited 12.5% more people in fiscal year 2024 than in the year prior regardless of a difficult and market.

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

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While speaking at a multiservice panel on 2025 recruiting issues at the Pentagon earlier this week, Director of Military Accession Policy Katie Helland said that the services increased the number 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 began FY 2025 with a 10% larger pool.

" [The Office of the Secretary of Defense] and the services will continue to build off the momentum that we've acquired in 2024," Helland said.

" Nevertheless," she continued, "we require to stay very carefully positive about the future recruiting operations as we continue to recruit in a market that has low youth tendency to serve, limited 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 considering that the metric has been tracked, a lot of young individuals have actually never thought about the alternative of serving in the armed force.

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

To counter such obstacles, Helland said the armed force has carried out a medical pilot program that permits employees to sign up with the military without a waiver for many health conditions - provided they meet specific requirements. Additionally, there are service member prep courses that prepare recruits to satisfy the exhausting 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 should understand that there has never ever been a better time for them to choose military service," Helland stated.

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

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" Youth today look for a bigger function in their lives and desire tasks where they have higher 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 uses more than 250 professions which it represents among the most extremely informed companies throughout the world and throughout all pay grades, Helland stated the Defense Department is working hard to counter the narrative that signing up with the armed force is an alternative to attending college or "an alternative of last resort."

" We are working to reframe this story so that Americans comprehend that military service is a pathway to greater education and career opportunities while defending democracy and the liberties we love," Helland said.

She included that DOD is reframing this narrative. For instance, the department's Joint Advertising Marketing research and Studies program will quickly launch a project to build familiarity with the American public about the worth of military service. Plans are likewise proceeding to have adult influencers advocate for military service.