A determined national effort to hire men and women entering their life after service has paid off. According to the Department of Defense, corporate America's desire to employ veterans with specialized skills training has dropped the veteran unemployment rate to its lowest level since April 2008.
Once a rampant problem among servicemembers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, DoD News reported this week that veteran unemployment has been consistently lower than that of the nonveteran population – going on 23 straight weeks in a row – at just 3.9 percent. The improved job numbers are due to both the overall strength of the economy and the active pursuit of veterans by businesses nationwide.
Susan S. Kelly, who heads DoD's Transition to Veterans program, told DoD News that "The heads of corporations say they spend millions of dollars every year teaching their managers leadership skills." But veterans arrive on day one with those skills already ingrained. Teamwork, critical thinking, and persistence all come naturally to them and don't need to be taught.
Companies across the country are taking advantage of that. Walmart easily met its commitment to hiring 100,000 veterans, so it decided to do better and hire 250,000. Hire 500,000 Heroes, a campaign launched by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, has already collected hiring promises from thousands of businesses that will far surpass its stated goal.
"Until every veteran who wants a job is hired, our work is not done," said Ross Brown, J.P. Morgan Chase's head of military and veteran affairs, in an email to the Los Angeles Times.
"The real value has been promoting a positive brand for veterans," Phillip Carter, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told the Times. "The message has been: Hiring veterans is good for business."