In recent years, more large companies have made hiring veterans a priority, and that has afforded many former servicemembers employment opportunities they simply would not have had before. Cable giant Comcast is one such business, and it has a very lofty goal in place to hire veterans in the next few years.
By the end of 2017, Comcast hopes to have hired some 10,000 veterans, making up as much as 15 percent of all new hires, according to a report from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Already, the company brought aboard 2,400 in 2015 alone, and that number was up nearly 40 percent from 2014. And to that end, it hired a veteran to head up the company's military and veterans affairs division, which reports directly to top executives.
Nationwide, about 495,000 veterans were unemployed at some point last year, and nearly 3 in 5 were over the age of 45, the report said. Close to 2 in 5 were between 25 and 44.
The more companies of all sizes can do to prioritize hiring veterans, the better off both those former servicemembers and the companies themselves will end up being, because veterans routinely prove to be eager, able workers with a wealth of professional skills.