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

Katie Helland Director of Military Accessions Policy Katie Helland speaks with members of the media during a panel on 2025 recruiting objectives 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 recruiting concerns at the Pentagon earlier today, Director of Military Accession Policy Katie Helland said that the services increased the number of recruits 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 composed contracts, and the active components' postponed entry program began FY 2025 with a 10% larger swimming pool.

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

" Nevertheless," she continued, "we need to remain very carefully 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 people."

Helland elaborated on those obstacles by explaining that, for the first time given that the metric has been tracked, a lot of young individuals have actually never ever considered the choice of serving in the armed force.

The factors behind that are multifold, Helland said. Young Americans have fewer ties to pals or family 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 variety of disqualifications.

To counter such difficulties, Helland job said the armed force has implemented a medical pilot program that allows to join the armed force without a waiver for various health conditions - offered they fulfill specific requirements. Additionally, there are service member prep courses that prepare employees to satisfy the strenuous requirements of military service. Moreover, DOD is seeking to reconnect with youth and job their influencers by showing them the value of serving.

" The next generation of Americans to serve ought to know that there has never ever been a better time for them to pick military service," Helland job said.

Panel Pentagon Press Secretary Flying Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder facilitates 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: Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jackie Sanders, DOD. VIRIN: 241030-D-XI929-1016

" Youth today look for a bigger function in their lives and desire jobs where they have higher involvement in decision-making and can produce a direct concrete effect," she continued. "Military service uses all of this."

Explaining that U.S. military service offers more than 250 occupations which it represents one of the most extremely educated companies throughout the world and across all pay grades, Helland said the Defense Department is striving to counter the story that joining the armed force is an alternative to attending college or "an option of last hope."

" We are working to reframe this narrative so that Americans comprehend that military service is a path to higher education and profession chances while safeguarding democracy and the freedoms we hold dear," Helland said.

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