America's Heroes -- Preparing Our Vets for Civilian Employment.

摘要

The United States currently faces an unprecedented high unemployment rate among its Veterans. This problem requires all Department of Defense (DoD) agencies to use fresh thinking on how to resolve it. The unemployment rate for Iraq-era and Afghanistan-era veterans averaged 12.1 percent in 2011, and topped 30 percent among those veterans under age 25. This unemployment rate is significantly higher than that of nonveterans. This crisis presents an opportunity for constructive change to our current transition programs and, in particular, how we partner with corporate America. Currently, there is no centralized information source on employment opportunities for Veterans. Also, there is no clear conduit for industry to get educated on the process. Corporations are faced with literally dozens of programs, both government and private, which has caused them to lose their initiative in pursuing Veterans. DoD must lead the effort to connect our Veterans with corporate America. Corporate America has shown a willingness to hire Veterans, and we must ensure that we have clear systems and processes in place to facilitate their hiring.