Military services upping recruiting goals after rebound in 2024 - Defense One

Recruits stand in formation at the U.S. Navy's only boot camp, in Great Lakes, Ill. The U.S. Navy just edged past its recruiting goal for fiscal 2024. U.S. Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Stuart Posada

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Audrey Decker

After years of shortfalls, nearly all of the U.S. military’s active-duty components met their recruiting goals this year—and plan to increase those goals in 2025.

The military services recruited 225,000 people in fiscal year 2024—25,000 more recruits than last year, Katie Helland, the Pentagon’s director of military accession policy, told reporters Wednesday.

Service officials have previously cited a lower desire to serve, limited familiarity with the military in the general population, a competitive labor market, and declining eligibility among young people as the biggest hurdles to military recruiting, and officials Wednesday said those challenges persist. Only about 23 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible to serve without some type of waiver, Helland said.

But as recruiters regain a foothold in communities post-COVID, the services are seeing more willingness to serve, and that “growing propensity” helped them achieve their recruiting goals this year, Helland said.

“When our recruiters get out there and make contact with the individual, they can grow propensity one person at a time. That's where I believe we are seeing successes, is the operations and [when] we've been able to get back into communities. When you think about what happened during COVID, we had to pull out of communities for almost two years. It takes time to get back in and develop those relationships again,” Helland said.

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Looking to 2025, the military services plan to build on this year’s momentum and bump yearly recruiting goals.

The Army will increase its recruiting goal to 61,000 people in 2025, after beating its recruiting goal of 55,000 this year, and aim for 10,000 in the service’s Delayed Entry Program, said Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis, commander of Army Recruiting Command.

The Air Force just barely met its recruiting goal of 27,100 troops in 2024, but plans to increase that goal to 32,500 in 2025, said Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein, commander of Air Force Recruiting Services. The 20 percent increase for the Air Force is ambitious, but Amrhein said it’s achievable. Separately, the Space Force will increase its recruiting goal by 30 percent in 2025.

The Navy will keep its recruiting goal for 2025 at 40,600 recruits—after it just squeaked by its 2024 goal, said Rear Adm. James Waters III, commander of the Navy Recruiting Command.

The Marine Corps will increase its goal to 29,300 recruits next year after hitting this year’s goal of 27,500 Marines, said Maj. Gen. William Bowers, the leader of Marine Corps Recruiting Command.

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