Employing America's Veterans: Perspectives from Businesses

Abstract

Employment is an important aspect of reintegration into civilian society for many transitioning service members. Despite general American goodwill and intent to support veterans, many companies must emphasize business-related reasons to hire veterans. Thus, any effort to improve veteran employment outcomes must consider employer perspectives and the institutions and processes in place to facilitate and incentivize the hiring of veterans.This report provides empirical data representing the experiences of 69 companies of varying size, location and industry. In this report, the authors discuss to what extent, and for what reasons, employers think it is good business to hire veterans. Additionally, from the experiences of those employers who hesitate or have concerns about hiring veterans, Harrell and Berglass also describe the challenges to veteran employment and make recommendations for policy changes to improve the employment situation of veterans