Disabled American Veterans (DAV) is connecting veterans and their spouses to meaningful employment through a series of no-cost virtual career fairs nationwide.
Jeff Hall, national employment director for the DAV, said the veteran unemployment rate across the country has been slow to recover since it took a significant hit from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Just prior to the lockdown, quarantine restrictions of the pandemic, we were enjoying historic lows of unemployment amongst the veteran community of about 3 percent,” said Hall.
The unemployment rate for all veterans in February was 5.5 percent, the same as in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Specifically, for veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars era, unemployment was 5.9 percent, down slightly from 6.3 percent in January. That translates to about 500,000 veterans across the country who are actively looking but unable to find stable employment.
“The interesting thing was, while there was a huge spike in non-veteran employment across the country, well over 10 percent, unemployment among veterans, especially among service-connected veterans, never really spiked above 6.5 percent,” said Hall.
The DAV’s career fairs went all virtual in March of 2020 and educational webinars are held in advance of the virtual fairs.
“One of the questions we get the most is is there a dress code,” Hall said. “We tell people to dress for success as you would for any interview.”
In addition to career fairs, DAV also offers free job-seeking advice and resources to veterans and their spouses.
According to Hall, in the last year, 4,043 exhibitors extended more than 5,290 job offers to the more than 30,000 veterans and spouses who attended.
DAV also supports employers by connecting them to qualified candidates and through free resources such as DAV’s Guide to Hiring and Retaining Veterans with Disabilities and information on employment/hiring tax credits available to companies.
“Very few companies are aware of the work opportunity tax credit, which can be up to $9,600, just for hiring a disabled veteran," said Hall. “There’s a lot of those types of things that are available.”
A full list of 2021 career fairs and other available resources can be found here.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
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