After years of above-average unemployment, the hiring outlook for U.S. veterans is improving. Forty percent of employers are actively recruiting U.S. veterans to work for their organization in the next 12 months, compared to 37 percent last year, according to a recent CareerBuilder survey.
What’s more, 68 percent of employers said that if they had two equally qualified candidates and one was a veteran, they would hire the veteran.
The top sectors expected to hire veterans include customer service (35 percent), IT (32 percent), production (28 percent), sales (24 percent) and accounting/finance (21 percent).
In terms of the most sought-after skill sets, employers look for:
- Ability to work as a team (63 percent)
- Disciplined approach to work (60 percent)
- Respect and integrity (59 percent)
- Ability to perform under pressure (52 percent)
- Leadership skills (52 percent)
CareerBuilder and RallyPoint have teamed up to help veterans take advantage of these opportunities and overcome some of the challenges they face when transitioning into civilian jobs by connecting CareerBuilder’s network of hundreds of thousands of employers with RallyPoint’s 1.4 million members.
Want to learn more about hiring vets? Check out 4 ways it pays to hire veterans for your small business.
