Employers will soon need to give more thought to the part of their job applications that ask about veteran status. The Washington Post recently reported on a new rule that requires contractors to compile information on their veteran hiring practices for the year. This Labor Department regulation is intended to help solve the ongoing issue of the high percentage of unemployed veterans.
Unemployment rates
It's no secret that the veteran unemployment rate is incredibly high – specifically, the rate for post-9/11 veterans, which U.S. News & World Report explained is higher than that of the overall population. While the rate for this group has slightly improved since its peak, there's still a long road of improvement ahead.
Lida Citroën, a workforce transition course teacher at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, told the news source that the veteran unemployment rate is significant for a number of reasons.
"Anytime you take a community that has volunteered to serve something as big and as bold and scary and important as what they did … you take somebody at that level of commitment and bring them back into a society that maybe doesn't understand them or doesn't value them, that has to be emotionally devastating," she said. "If they don't have access to the resources, if they don't feel connected to a community … it would be natural that somebody could get lost."
Measures to improve the job market
Lawmakers are hopeful that this rule will help improve the job market for veterans. While it may not be immediate and it will take some time for results to show, requiring employers to report on this statistic forces them to be more conscious of the gaps in their hiring. Not only do they need to collect this data and make the number transparent to the Labor Department, but they also need to have a plan in place to increase their veteran onboarding.
This effort is just one of several initiatives to lower the veteran unemployment rate. In 2011, the 100,000 Jobs Mission was started to increase job opportunities for this group of people. Close to 180 private sector companies worked together to create positions for veterans, and U.S. News & World Report explained that the group was set to exceed their goal by the end of 2014. The initiative, coupled with the new rule for veteran hiring data, is making an impact in the community and helping to improve life after service.