Veterans: A business asset

As Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we partnered during the hardest days of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now we are working together again in another cause important to our country: assuring returning veterans have work opportunities worthy of their service and sacrifice and also their talents and skills.

Recently the Department of Labor announced that unemployment among veterans dropped to its lowest level in seven years in 2015. That’s great news -- and remarkable progress. Unemployment has gone down because private sector companies have stepped up. Businesses like Verizon, LockheedMartin, Honeywell, USAA, Monster.com, AT&T, Starbucks, JP MorganChase and other Wall Street firms have successfully implemented aggressive hiring programs for veterans and military families. Non-profit organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes and Easter Seals’ Military and Veterans Services have also played an important part. In every case, involvement of the organization’s CEO has been decisive.

But the battle isn’t over for veterans and military families. The challenge they face is not just finding work -- it’s having choices worthy of their skills and experience, and flexible enough to meet their needs.