New Jobs a Post-Military Must
It’s long been common knowledge that military families often struggle to make ends meet once their time in the service comes to an end.
The Secretary of Labor Hilary L. Solis joined the Obama administration to take steps toward righting this issue. In an effor to support these affected citizens, they released a report entitled, Strengthening our Military Families: Meeting America’s Commitment.
“Every day, U.S. service members — along with their families — make sacrifices that benefit all Americans,” said Secretary Solis. “The president understands that providing necessary support strengthens not only these individuals but our nation as a whole. Only if we do right by them do we do right by the American people.”
Some components of the plan include ending homelessness among veterans and their families, increasing opportunities in federal careers, increasing opportunities in the private sector, and reducing barriers to employment and services.
Solis highlighted the Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program, specifically, the expansion of the program to include grants targeting homeless female veterans and veterans with families. She also developed a toolkit for service providers to better understand the trauma experienced by homeless female veterans.
The Labor Department has taken steps to re-engineer a Transition Assistance Program employment workshop to include more military spouses and provide a more hands-on, customized workforce readiness program. The more than 3,000 One-Stop Career Centers across the country are expanding their outreach to ensure access by military spouses to their services.
Recruiters might take this administrative push as an opportunity to help place military families into jobs that are good matches for their skills.