U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown
VA Launches Veterans Employment Center

Providing employment opportunities should always be a top federal priority. During this challenging economic climate, it is extremely important that our veterans, transitioning servicemembers, and their spouses are provided with every opportunity to find jobs.

But our veterans and the employers looking to hire them have lacked a single, authoritative source for connecting. To accomplish this, last week the Department of Veterans Affairs launched a new, online resource for transitioning servicemembers, veterans, and their dependents. This new feature, the Veterans Employment Center, is the first interagency tool that brings together public and private job opportunities with resume building and other career tools currently offered on a variety of websites together in one place.

Under the First Lady’s and Dr. Jill Biden’s Joining Forces Initiative, the Department of Veterans Affairs worked with private employers, the Defense, Labor, and Education Departments; and the Office of Personnel Management to design and develop the site.

Through the Veterans Employment Center, applicants are connected to high quality career choices by matching their identified skills with available public and private job opportunities. Employers can connect with high-quality transitioning servicemembers, veterans, and spousal applicants, set their own veterans hiring goals, and track their progress.

As a senior member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Sen. Sherrod Brown will continue working to ensure that veterans and military spouses are able to find quality jobs that pay livable wages. To increase such opportunities for our veterans, Senator Brown helped to pass the VOW to Hire Heroes Act (H.R. 674), which was the first of its kind to offer broad job skills training for all servicemembers returning home. It was signed into law by President Obama on November 21, 2011. He also cosponsored the Troop Talent Act (S. 700) in October 2013, to help ensure that the education and training veterans and servicemembers complete in the military is better translated into civilian certifications and licenses for the purposes of employment.