News: Helping Out NYC Veterans
(Long Island, N.Y.) A press conference was held on Sunday at the office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Third Avenue in New York City. The goal was to help the thousands of New York City veterans achieve jobs and careers after returning from active service. Of the seventeen thousand veterans in service since September 11th, 2001 in New York City, an estimated two thousand are unemployed.
Some reports claimed that more than four thousand veterans were added to those unemployed in a single year. Over seventy thousand American veterans were homeless on a given night two years ago. According to statistics, an average of eighteen veterans commit suicide daily.
More than twenty percent of military veterans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four are unemployed. These figures are more than double the national unemployment average. The newly proposed legislation will attempt to provide for a smoother transition for military veterans from active duty to civilian status.
Reports from August of last year claimed that one out of five young veterans from Staten Island were unemployed. In response to this figure, legislation was proposed considering tax cuts for businesses that hire veterans. Such businesses received forty percent credit on the first $6k paid to each veteran.
The program cost an estimated $100 million per year but supporters claimed that this figure was paid back easily through income tax collected from each of the veterans. Companies that participated in the program included the United Parcel Service, which received $500k in tax credit for hiring a thousand veterans, JC Penny, and Barnes & Noble.
Another benefit of the newly proposed legislation will allow veterans to apply for federal positions while in service, so long as they know when they’ll get out. It also allows military experience to supersede certain bureaucratic red tape. Drivers of ambulances in Iraq will have the opportunity to drive ambulances in New York City without the need of being recertified.
The legislation is being called the Hiring Heroes Act of 2011 and will focus on the veterans’ work experience, skills, and self-motivated qualities. It understands that most veterans make ideal job candidates but lack the ability to search for available positions. It will provide veterans with the government’s Transition Assistant Program (TAP) and require that federal agencies follow up with veterans six months after they enter the program and every three months within the first year. In doing so, TAP will insure the progress of job searches and determine whether the program has been successful.
Millions of taxpayer dollars are spent in training military servicemen with cutting-edge technology and advanced techniques. The newly proposed legislation will insure that the money is put to good use and that each veteran will participate in job training programs, job search strategies, and resume and interview workshops before leaving the military. The bill, which may be passed as early as this year, will affect the high number of returning troops.
One aspect of the program matches resumes to potential job offers and sends an email to veterans asking for permission to forward companies more information. With all the benefits of such programs, many have wondered why the same doesn’t apply to a greater sector of the unemployed, such as newly recognized college graduates.
