When Nick returned stateside, his skills and experience weren’t enough for him to get a job as an Emergency Medical Technician. He’d first need a litany of classes to “qualify” for work he performed daily on the battlefield.
I know we’re a couple of months away from Veterans Day, but I bring up Nick’s story this Labor Day because I’ve heard too many like it. Stories of men and women who develop extraordinary skills in medicine, technology, accounting and countless other fields during military service, yet struggle to find work at home.
Unemployment for Washington veterans was at 6.6 percent last quarter – down a full 3 percent from this time last year. But nationwide, the jobless rate for post-9/11 veterans hit 12.4 percent in July – and we’re on the brink of an unprecedented veteran boom: More than 1 million service members are expected to leave the military in the next five years.
We have a collective obligation to help these brave men and women thrive in the civilian workforce. That’s why I’m joining President Barack Obama in issuing an urgent call to action for America’s employers to hire or train 100,000 unemployed post-9/11 veterans or their spouses by the end of 2013.
My department, in concert with the Obama administration, has stepped up efforts to help veterans make successful transitions from the battlefield to the civilian workforce. We’re targeting credentialing systems on a national scale, so veterans like Nick don’t have to start from scratch where state and local licensing is involved.
For some employers hiring veterans may require a shift in philosophy. Review your requirements. Chances are, a veteran’s experience equals – or may exceed – what they might have learned in a bachelor’s program.
Moving forward, my department is focused on helping to better prepare all returning service members with access to effective career counseling, job training and job search services. Last year alone, nearly 1.7 million veterans accessed our Veterans’ Employment and Training Services – including 473,700 who entered employment.
The construction unions stepped up with a national program, Helmets to Hardhats, that trains veterans in construction trades before they leave their military assignments. The Troops to Energy Jobs program, developed by the Center for Energy Workforce Development and the Edison Electric Institute, is helping veterans transfer their military experience into college credit – and ultimately to find work in utility companies.
The incentives to hire veterans have never been better. Obama recently introduced new tax credits for firms that hire unemployed veterans and veterans with service-connected disabilities. Even the paperwork to claim the credits will be simplified.
Of course, the altruistic value of hiring veterans easily equals any financial reward. John F. Kennedy once said about veterans, “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
The time is now to demonstrate our gratitude by making the extra effort to integrate more veterans into our workforce.
Hilda L. Solis is the U.S. Secretary of Labor.
