Firms Press to Hire Young Veterans
October 14, 2012
The unemployment rate among younger U.S. military veterans, long a source of worry, is declining as companies step up efforts to hire them.
Even so, many veterans are still struggling to explain the skills they learned in the military in ways that are relevant for employers, and the unemployment rate for younger veterans remains well above the national rate for nonveterans.
General Electric Co. is scheduled to announce Monday the latest corporate initiative to spur hiring of veterans. Such programs have proliferated in the past two years. A coalition of 76 companies, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp last year set a goal of hiring 100,000 veterans by 2020. Last week, the group said it had hired a total of 28,186 as of Sept. 30, up from 18,249 three months earlier.