Marquette Tribune: MKE group promotes hiring of veterans

With the unemployment rate currently at 8.3 percent nationally, different demographics of Americans are searching for work. One group, military veterans, reported a 7.5 percent unemployment rate by a Bureau of Labor Statistics report from earlier this month, are starting to receive help in their job search.

The Society of Human Resource Management’s Metro Milwaukee chapter held a seminar last Tuesday at the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board located at 2338 N. 27th St., with hopes of showing local employers ways to hire more veterans.

Program coordinator Heather Page said it is part of the organization’s objective to try to find ways for people to find work.

“Our mission is to have a passion, especially in these difficult times, to put people back to work,” Page said. “We can educate our members on putting people to work. We are focusing right now on students and veterans.”

The seminar featured guest speakers from the military, who spoke to the audience of human resource professionals and various community leaders about their own experiences as well as ways to provide more opportunities for veterans to find work as civilians.

One of the major issues highlighted at the seminar talked about measures veterans need to take to bolster their resumes.

“There are a lot of transferable skills that a veteran can take into the workplace,” Page said. “With application tracking systems, if a job recruiter types in key words (to search for an applicant), they might not be able to find them on a military resume, but (the veteran) might still have the skills.”

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