Study: Private sector to hire 200,000 veterans

A coalition of big businesses is surpassing its goal for hiring veterans and is on pace to hire 200,000 by year’s end, according to a new economic study released Monday.

Businesses, including AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and Verizon formed a coalition in 2011 with the aim of hiring 100,000 veterans by 2020.

{mosads}They say they have already hired more than 190,000 and are now on pace to have hired 200,000 veterans by the end of this year alone, according to a RAND Corporation study commissioned by JPMorgan.

The report comes as the White House looks to spotlight the unemployment rate among former service members as the nation prepares to celebrate Veterans Day on Tuesday.

The unemployment rate for veterans who have served since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is 7.2 percent, higher than the national rate of 5.8 percent. The veteran unemployment rate, though, is down from 10 percent last year.

Women veterans face a tougher situation. For female post-9/11 veterans, the unemployment rate is 11.2 percent; compared with the 6.2 percent for male post-9/11 veterans.

Jason Furman, the chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, noted in a blog post Friday that “comparing the employment situation of veterans from different service periods and non-veterans can be difficult because these groups differ substantially on characteristics like gender, age and education, which are correlated with unemployment rates in the general population.”

“Nevertheless, even after controlling for these differences, it is clear that post-9/11 veterans face additional challenges when they return home,” he said.

The Obama administration has faced challenges helping returning veterans enter the civilian workforce and has pressed businesses to step up their hiring and work with government to provide new resources.