The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s David Chavern says hiring military veterans is good for the economy because service members tend to have “dedication, discipline, willingness to do hard work.”
“One of the things we hear from our members is that they need workers. That story often doesn’t get told in a time of high unemployment. But there is a great need for skilled workers, dedicated workers, folks like you have in the military,” Chavern, chief operating officer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told Newsmax.TV during an exclusive interview.
The U.S. Chamber is expanding its nationwide push to help match military veterans and their spouses with employers. The effort began last year when the organization hosted more than 100 job fairs.
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“We’ve already placed more than 8,000 veterans in jobs,” Chavern said.
But the need to hire more vets is still great, he said. In a recent Op-Ed piece that appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Chavern wrote, “Post-9/11 veterans are having the most difficulty, with younger veterans ages 18 to 24 facing a staggering 30 percent unemployment rate. Members of the National Guard and Reserve face an unemployment rate of 14 percent nationally."
“Roughly 1 million men and women in uniform and their families will leave duty over the next five years.
“We are trying to be the connector between what our members need and what our returning veterans need,” Chavern said.
The Chamber is expanding efforts to help veterans find jobs this year, planning to host more than 400 job fairs in 2012, including an event March 28 aboard the USS Intrepid museum in New York.
“It’s going to be one of our premier events. Not only is it going to be huge in terms of number of employers and number of people seeking jobs, but we are going to use it again as a means to drive more broader understanding of this problem,” he told Newsmax.
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