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

Katie Helland Director of Military Accessions Policy Katie Helland employment speaks with members of the media throughout a panel on fiscal 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: Flying Force Tech. Sgt. Jackie Sanders, DOD. VIRIN: 241030-D-XI929-1004

While speaking at a multiservice panel on 2025 hiring concerns at the Pentagon earlier this week, Director of Military Accession Policy Katie Helland stated 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 said, the services had a 35% boost in written contracts, and the active components' delayed entry program began FY 2025 with a 10% bigger swimming pool.

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

" Nevertheless," she continued, "we require to stay cautiously 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 chances, a competitive labor market and a decreasing eligibility amongst young grownups."

Helland elaborated on those challenges by discussing that, for the very first time since the metric has been tracked, the majority of young people have actually never ever thought about the option of serving in the armed force.

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

To counter such difficulties, Helland said the military has executed a medical pilot program that enables recruits to join the armed force without a waiver for various health conditions - supplied they fulfill specific requirements. Additionally, there are service member prep courses that prepare recruits to satisfy the difficult requirements of military service. Moreover, DOD is seeking to reconnect with youth and their influencers by revealing them the worth of serving.

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

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

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

" Youth today seek a larger purpose in their lives and desire tasks 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 uses more than 250 occupations which it represents one of the most highly educated companies throughout the world and throughout all pay grades, Helland stated the Defense Department is striving to counter the narrative that the military is an alternative to going to college or "a choice of last option."

" We are working to reframe this story so that Americans understand that military service is a pathway to higher education and career chances while protecting democracy and the freedoms we hold dear," Helland stated.

She included that DOD is reframing this narrative. For example, employment the department's Joint Advertising Marketing research and Studies program will quickly launch 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.