The Defense Department's armed services branches hired 12.5% more people in financial year 2024 than in the year prior despite a difficult and indifferent recruiting market.

Katie Helland Director of Military Accessions Policy Katie Helland speaks to members of the media during a panel on fiscal year 2025 recruiting objectives 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 problems at the Pentagon earlier today, 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% boost in written agreements, 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 construct off the momentum that we've gained in 2024," Helland stated.

" 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 propensity to serve, limited familiarity with military opportunities, a competitive labor market and a decreasing eligibility amongst young people."

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

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

To counter such difficulties, Helland stated the armed force has implemented a medical pilot program that allows recruits to join the armed force without a waiver for numerous health conditions - provided they meet particular requirements. Additionally, there are service member preparation courses that prepare employees to fulfill the exhausting requirements of military service. Moreover, DOD is seeking to reconnect with youth and their influencers by revealing them the value of serving.

" The next generation of Americans to serve should know that there has actually never been a much better time for them to choose military service," Helland said.

Panel Pentagon Press Secretary Flying Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder helps with a panel on 2025 recruiting objectives at the Pentagon, Oct. 30, 2024.
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" Youth today seek a bigger function in their lives and desire tasks where they have higher participation in decision-making and can produce a direct concrete impact," she continued. "Military service uses all of this."

Explaining that U.S. military service provides more than 250 occupations which it represents among the most extremely informed organizations throughout the world and throughout all pay grades, Helland said the Defense Department is working hard to counter the story that signing up with the military is an alternative to going to college or "an alternative of last hope."

" We are working to reframe this narrative so that Americans comprehend that military service is a pathway to higher education and career opportunities while protecting democracy and the liberties we hold dear," Helland said.

She added that DOD is reframing this story. For example, the department's Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies program will quickly launch a project to develop familiarity with the American public about the worth of military service. Plans are likewise proceeding to have adult influencers promote for military service.