Last week, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee introduced a bill, the Hiring Heroes Act of 2011, to help veterans find work. The Senator is promoting the bill as the first of its kind to require broad job skills training for all service members returning home.
For a Limited Time receive a
FREE HR Report "Top 10 Best Practices in HR Management." This comprehensive special report will give you the information you need to know about these current HR challenges and how to most effectively manage them in your workplace.
Download NowIn addition to requiring that each returning service member attend a transition assistance program, the bill will also create new direct federal hiring authority to increase the number of jobs available to service members when they leave the military, and will improve veteran mentorship programs in the working world.
“Today, we have an unemployment rate of over 27% among young veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Murray at a press conference. “That is over one in five of our nation’s heroes who can’t find a job to support their family, don’t have an income that provides stability, and don’t have work that provides them with the self-esteem and pride that is so critical to their transition home.“
More information on the Hiring Heroes Act of 2011 is available on http://murray.senate.gov.