Nearly Two-Thirds of Employers Would Hire Military Veterans Over Other Equally Qualified Candidates, CareerBuilder Study Finds

CHICAGO, Nov. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite higher than average unemployment rates, employment prospects for U.S. military veterans may be improving.

According to a new CareerBuilder study, 29 percent of employers say they are actively recruiting veterans to work for their organizations, up 9 percentage points from a year ago. Twenty-two percent are planning on adding members of the National Guard to their headcount, up 8 percentage points. Sixty-five percent said they would be more likely to hire a veteran over another equally qualified candidate.  The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive© of more than 2,600 employers nationwide from August 13 to September 6, 2012.

Now CareerBuilder and Military Times are joining forces at www.MilitaryTimes.com/Jobs to help veterans access the tools and information they need to connect them with the employers who most want to hire them.  The Military Times Network, which includes ArmyTimes.com, AirForceTimes.com, NavyTimes.com and MarineCorpsTimes.com, in addition to MilitaryTimes.com, is visited by more than 2.5 million unique visitors each month, and offers unique content for each of the branches of the U.S. military online, and in print.

Where The Job Opportunities Are
Employers are looking to leverage the technical and leadership skills of military personnel, with 3 in 10 hoping to fill information technology positions with veterans.  The most common areas for hiring U.S. service men and women are:

• Information Technology – 30 percent
• Customer Service – 23 percent
• Engineering – 22 percent
• Sales – 20 percent
• Manufacturing – 20 percent
• Business Development – 15 percent

"The unemployment rate for veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq, though declining, is still considerably higher than the general population," said Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America. "While military veterans possess a great deal of the business-friendly skills that employers look for in candidates, one of the challenges vets face is knowing where to begin when job hunting after they return from active duty."

"Today's military is a well-educated, professional, all-volunteer force," said Elaine Howard, president of Gannett Government Media Corp., publisher of the Military Times brands. "So when troops join the civilian workforce, they bring with them skills, discipline and unmatched drive. But navigating the job search and translating military skills into civilian terms has always been a challenge. In partnering with CareerBuilder, troops and veterans now have a better way to make the critical transition from military to civilian success."

Military Times 
Military Times has teamed up with CareerBuilder on a new career site for service members and veterans.  The site hosts a wide range of jobs across industries from employers eager to hire veterans and a comprehensive tool set for veterans to use in their job search.  Employers in turn will be able to quickly reach a nationwide pool of veteran talent that is quick to learn, trained to take initiative, and adaptable to change.

At MilitaryTimes.com/jobs, veterans can:

• Access a skills-translator that uses a veteran's military job code to find the civilian jobs that best match the veteran's skills.
• Search for jobs by occupation, company, industry and location, and post up to five versions of their resume to appeal to a wider cast of employers. 
• Check out articles featuring job search and workplace advice for veterans.
• Stay up to date on the latest job fairs and hiring trends for veterans.

Challenges for Veteran Job Searchers
One of the biggest challenges employers face when recruiting U.S. veterans is that service men and women don't always market themselves as veterans. Forty-five percent of employers say they pay more attention to applications submitted by U.S. veterans, but 30 percent say it's not always obvious whether a candidate is a veteran.

Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive^© on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,655 U.S. hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time, not self-employed, government and non-government) ages 18 and over between August 13 and September 6, 2012 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions). With pure probability sample of 2,655, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/-1.9 percentage points. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About Military Times
Service members and their families rely on the Military Times newsweeklies and web sites as trusted, independent sources for news and information on the most important issues affecting their careers and personal lives.

The Military Times newsweeklies, including Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times, are published by Gannett Government Media, a subsidiary of Gannett Co. Inc. Since its inception in 1940, Gannett Government Media has a strong heritage and tradition of meeting the highest standards of independent journalism and has expanded with publications serving all branches of the U.S. military, the global defense community, the U.S. federal government, and several special interest, defense-oriented industry sectors.

About CareerBuilder®
CareerBuilder is the global leader in human capital solutions, helping companies target and attract their most important asset - their people. Its online career site, CareerBuilder.com®, is the largest in the United States with more than 24 million unique visitors, 1 million jobs and 49 million resumes. CareerBuilder works with the world's top employers, providing resources for everything from employment branding and talent intelligence to recruitment support. More than 10,000 websites, including 140 newspapers and broadband portals such as MSN and AOL, feature CareerBuilder's proprietary job search technology on their career sites. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South America, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.

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SOURCE CareerBuilder