Veterans Seek Meaningful Work

I recently had the opportunity to write for the St. Louis Business Journal about the importance of hiring veterans. Please click the link above for some astounding statistics on veteran hiring.

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Veterans Day offers us a chance to honor those who have committed their lives to the defense of our nation. According to LinkedIn’s Veteran Opportunity Report, there are approximately 22 million veterans in the US, with 200,000 leaving the armed services to enter the civilian workforce every year. After serving our country, veterans deserve to transition to the civilian workforce with ease.

But in many areas of the U.S., the unemployment rate for veterans is higher than the national average. In addition to unemployment, veterans also struggle to find meaningful work, even though they have excellent training and well developed skill sets from their experiences in the military. When they do find work they often face underemployment. Veterans are 70% likely to take jobs that are a demotion from their roles in the military and 33% of veterans are underemployed.

Many veterans often find low wage work in areas of the country that do not have an abundance of job opportunities. They are less likely to find work in certain sectors that do not value the skills they have. Veterans are less likely to work in creative or people-centric industries such as entertainment, hospitality, travel, or marketing. This is not because they do not have the strengths or talents, but rather because “38 of the top 50 industries employ them at a lower rate than nonveterans.”

Rose International has found that veterans are excellent workers who bring initiative and excel in any job that allows them to use and build on their skills. Since we began our veteran hiring initiative we’ve increased veteran hiring by 30% in the past year alone. In the past several years, we’ve helped over 1000 veterans find meaningful jobs. We’re proud to assist veterans in finding work that will allow them to succeed in life.

I truly believe in the importance of recognizing veterans as highly skilled, resilient, hardworking, and innovative employees. All industries will benefit greatly from increasing their veteran hiring.

This Veterans Day, let’s honor our veterans by helping them find meaningful careers that utilize their skills and experiences. 

If you enjoyed this blog, please check out these other recent topics I’ve explored:

Procrastination Can Hold You Back…Don’t Let It: Do you struggle with procrastination? Read my blog for tips on how to overcome procrastination so that you can achieve your goals and Make IT Happen!

It’s Never Too Late to Find Your Purpose: Your best work is accomplished after the age of 40. Do not fear if you haven’t yet found what drives you or you haven’t yet staked your claim. Read more to find out how to find your purpose!

So What, You Failed! We’ve All Been There on Our Way to Success: We often feel ashamed of our failures. If we learned to see them positively, we would understand that they make us into the person we are destined to become. Read more on how to re-think failure and embrace it to succeed.

The Five Generation Workforce: A multi-generational workplace offers companies multiple perspectives and creates a culture of innovation. Read more on how Boomers and Gen Z (and all generations in between) can learn from each other.

Your Competitiveness May Not Serve You: Are you competitive? Your competitive nature may not actually be serving you. In fact, the future of work is more likely to embrace a mindset that creates rather than competes.

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Sue Bhatia founded Rose International in the early 1990s from the basement of her home after realizing early-on in her career that if she stayed on her professional path as a systems analyst, it would take her 30 years to achieve her goals. Rose grew to become one of the nation’s largest minority- and women-owned Total Talent Solutions companies, and now services clients in all 50 US states with offices and development centers in 20+ U.S. cities and New Delhi, India. Recently, Glassdoor named Rose a Best Place to Work, and the San Francisco Business Times recognized Rose as a top company for supplier diversity in the Bay Area.