Hiring a veteran is indeed a good deed – for the Veteran and for the hiring organization.  Issues regarding Veteran jobless rates are well known.  According to Department of Labor statistics, the unemployment rate last year for young (age 18-24) veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars hit 21.6% percent, higher than for non-veterans in this same age bracket.

The Administration has responded in several ways to this challenge, to include issuing Executive Order 13518, which established the Veteran’s Employment Initiative (VEI), and extending tax credits through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to corporations that hire unemployed veteran(s) --  provided the veteran(s) were discharged or released from the military during the five years preceding the hiring date and had received unemployment benefits for at least four weeks during the one-year period ending on the hiring date. 

For many hiring managers, who may not be familiar with the U.S. military, here is the point – hiring a Veteran is not about the tax credit or doing a favor, it’s about doing a good deed for your company.  Veterans, including young Veterans, will ultimately make an immeasurable contribution to your corporation for many reasons, some of which are listed below:

1.      Veterans have received the most dynamic leadership training available today and…often have had to execute that leadership under the most difficult of circumstances.

2.      From day #1, Veterans have been trained to act as part of a team, with personal interest subservient to that of the team – if the team succeeds, they succeed.

3.      Incredible work ethic.

4.      Veterans’ military training has imparted a maturity far beyond their years.

5.      Veterans have been trained to think on a linear and non-linear basis, finding solutions to the most difficult problems and adapting those solutions to the work environment.  

This list could go on, but the bottom line for a hiring manager is that if your goal is to contribute to the corporate bottom line, then do a good deed for your company and hire a Veteran!

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