Veterans Day: Tax credits and tips for job seekers
Unemployed and under-employed veterans have plenty of reasons to celebrate this Veterans Day. President Obama's jobs plan, which would give significant tax breaks to companies that hire unemployed veterans, is sailing through Congress with rare bipartisan support. Experts believe the bill is so popular that it could be signed into law as early as next week.
At the same time, a new survey by a prominent employment site has found that 20% of surveyed companies are already actively recruiting former service members for jobs and 14% are actively recruiting those who served in the National Guard.
The help comes at a pivotal time. As President Obama prepares to wind down the war in Iraq and bring home tens of thousands of troops, a recent report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the unemployment rate among recent veterans - those serving between 2001 and today - is vastly higher than the national jobless rate. While long-time veterans are somewhat more likely to have jobs than the population as a whole (8.7% unemployed versus 9.4% of non-veterans in 2010), those who have been released from military service in the past decade are far more likely than the overall population to be unemployed. The jobless rate among recent veterans is 11.5% according to the BLS.
The jobs bill would provide credits ranging from $2,400 to $9,600 to companies hiring veterans, depending on the type of veteran hired. The highest credits would go to those hiring veterans who were disabled with service-connected injuries and veterans who had been out of work for 6 months or more.
Veterans face some unique challenges when they attempt to get work, according to CareerBuilder, which conducted the survey of more than 2,800 hiring managers with the help of Harris Interactive. The most daunting: Even employers who are anxious to hire former members of the military are not quite sure how military experience translates into the civilian workforce. And service members are not always good at effectively approaching the topic.
"Employers recognize the unique value military experience can bring, but that they don't always understand how military skills fit into corporate America," says Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America. "Veterans will need to clearly make that connection in their resume, cover letter and job interviews as they enter this new chapter of their careers."
Veterans can help bridge the gap by knowing the skills that companies are most likely to value, says Rassmussen. According to the CareerBuilder survey, the qualities that corporations most admire about veterans are:
- Disciplined approach to work (66%)
- Ability to work within a team (65%)
- Respect and integrity (58%)
- Leadership skills (56%)
- Problem-solving skills (54%)
- Ability to perform under pressure (53%)
- Communication skills (45%)
Also make sure to emphasize your military experience on your resume, CareerBuilder advises. One in four employers says that the biggest challenge in recruiting veterans is ferreting out the fact that an applicant has military experience. Too many veterans simply don't include the military experience as a bullet point on a resume.
Also be cognizant of what skills are needed for any job you're seeking and emphasize how your military background makes you uniquely qualified. If you led troops through Iraq, for instance, handling a team project should be a breeze. Remember that while modesty is a great quality in a human, being too modest could cause you to under-state your qualifications and make it difficult to get a job.
