Coinciding with Veteran’s Day, a number of new initiatives were announced to help put veterans back to work. Here are a few resources for communities with large military operations, as well as veterans returning home.

President Obama has announced a new initiative to support veterans looking to return to the workforce. The Returning Heroes Tax Credit provides firms that hired unemployed veterans with a maximum tax credit of $5,600 per veteran. The Wounded Warriors Tax Credit offers firms that hire veterans with service-connected disabilities a maximum credit of $9,600.

Indeed.com and Google also launched products aimed at supporting the veteran community this month. At military.indeed.com, veterans can now enter their Military Occupational Code (MOC) to search for civilian jobs on Indeed that match their skills and experience. In a similar spirit, Google launched a Veterans Job Bank in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs.



These initiatives are timely in light of the Bureau of Labor Statistics report that put the unemployment rate for veterans who served in the military at any time since September 2001 (known as Gulf War-era II veterans) at 11.5% in 2010 (as compared to 8.7% for all veterans and 9.4% for nonveterans). Additionally, about 25% of Gulf War-era II veterans reported having a service-connected disability, compared with 13 percent for all veterans.

In a recent National Public Radio (NPR) report veterans describe a job market that presents some unique challenges. These challenges include a generation of managers who are less likely to have direct military experience (and therefore less likely to fully comprehend the range of skills veterans bring to the job) and the fact that some military qualifications do not automatically transfer to the private sector. However, David Loughran, senior economist at the Rand Corporation, goes on to describe how veterans actually have an employment advantage over the long run, including lower unemployment levels than civilians (8.7% vs 9.4%).

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