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

Katie Helland Director of Military Accessions Policy Katie Helland speaks with members of the media throughout a panel on 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: 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 previously this week, Director employment of Military Accession Policy Katie Helland employment said that the services increased the variety 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 written agreements, and employment the active components' delayed entry program started FY 2025 with a 10% larger 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 said.

" Nevertheless," she continued, "we require to remain cautiously 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 amongst young adults."

Helland employment elaborated on those obstacles by discussing that, for the very first time considering that the metric has been tracked, the majority of youths have never ever considered the option of serving in the military.

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

To counter such challenges, Helland said the armed force has carried out a medical pilot program that permits employees to sign up with the armed force without a waiver for various health conditions - offered they satisfy specific requirements. Additionally, there are service member preparation courses that prepare employees to satisfy the exhausting requirements of military service. Moreover, DOD is seeking to reconnect with youth and their influencers by showing them the value of serving.

" The next generation of Americans to serve need to understand that there has never been a better time for them to select military service," Helland said.

Panel Pentagon Press Secretary Flying Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder helps with a panel on financial year 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: Flying Force Tech. Sgt. Jackie Sanders, DOD. VIRIN: 241030-D-XI929-1016

" 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 effect," she continued. "Military service provides all of this."

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 striving to counter the story that joining the armed force is an alternative to participating in college or "a choice of last hope."

" We are working to reframe this narrative so that Americans comprehend that military service is a pathway to greater education and profession opportunities while defending democracy and the liberties we hold dear," Helland employment stated.

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