Most of those exiting the military will be young men looking for work. For many of them, previous work experiences are in job sectors hard hit by the economic recession, including construction, transportation and manufacturing.
Without a concerted public-private partnership to help veterans find jobs and embark on new careers, individuals, families and society as a whole will pay a huge cost in unemployment, homelessness, mental health issues and more.
The last thing this nation needs is a generation of unemployed young veterans. There are signs it’s already starting to happen. For instance:
• Department of Labor data has estimated the unemployment rate has been as high as 27 percent for veterans ages 20-24.
• As recently as June, the unemployment ranks included about 1 million veterans and the jobless rate for veterans who have left the military in the past 10 years is about 13.3 percent.
The mounting unemployment problem facing veterans is not lost on Congress.
The Hiring Heroes Act of 2011 is a bipartisan measure in the Senate cosponsored by 32 senators. It cleared the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chaired by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., early this summer and is slated for a Senate floor vote this fall. The bill would, among other things:
• Ensure that all service members leaving the military participate in the Department of Defense’s Transition Assistance Program. The program, which provides training in résumé writing, interviews skills and information on job searches, would go from voluntary – about 27 percent of existing service members use it – to mandatory.
The DOD program would be linked to a Department of Labor program with enhanced job search services for veterans, including skills assessment and career coaching,
If this sounds like preferential treatment for veterans, well, it is. After all the sacrifices they have made for their country, they deserve it.
• Make it easier for service members with specific skill sets to get certification in similar civilian programs. For instance, why should it be so hard for a medic who treated wounded soldiers on the battlefield to transition to a job as an emergency medical technician or ambulance driver?
In a visit last week to the Washington Navy Yard, President Barack Obama challenged the private sector to commit to hiring or training 100,000 unemployed veterans and their spouses over the next 30 months.
As an incentive, the president is calling for two new hiring tax credits for firms that hire unemployed veterans. He would also double the existing tax credit for businesses that hire veterans with military-related disabilities.
These tax credits should be approved by Congress.
None of the federal initiatives will amount to a hill of beans without strong participation by the private sector.
There are several examples of businesses, large and small alike, that have embraced the challenge. They include:
• Microsoft, which will offer 10,000 training and certification packages to U.S. military veterans over two years, working with the Department of Labor.
The training, which is broken into intermediate and advanced levels, is delivered online with in-person support. It is part of a $12 million investment by Microsoft in support of U.S. veterans.
• Honeywell has a goal this year of placing 500 veterans in jobs at the company’s four businesses.
• Siemens expects to hire 450 veterans by the end of the year.
These are but a few examples of the public and private initiatives that will be so critical to military veterans making the transition into what is already a challenging work force.
