Military veterans returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have an employment rate of 13.1 percent compared to the non-veterans rate of 8.1 percent.
It's an embarrassment that men and women returning have trouble landing and keeping jobs in the country they defended.
A new program modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s could put thousands of them back to work.
President Obama announced creation of the "Veterans Jobs Corps" that will employ up to 20,000 veterans.
The men and women would be tasked with restoring trails, roads and levees on public lands, often rebuilding what civilian volunteers built decades ago.
It'll cost about $1 billion to put those veterans to work.
Some employers have a program that guarantees returning veterans a job interview.
Communities that hire veterans to work as police and firefighters will be given preference in some federal grants, administration officials told the Associated Press.
The Norman (Okla.) Transcript
Published Feb. 22, 2012, in Allied News, Grove City. Pick up a copy at 201 A Erie St.
Opinion
Putting returning veterans back to work
- Opinion
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Medicare: Did you really pay for that?
Last summer, Barack Obama riled a lot of entrepreneurs when he got carried away at a campaign event and told any American who had built up a successful enterprise, "you didn't build that."
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Pa. taxes pocketbooks of working class unfairly
We often hear about how Pennsylvania's tax laws are a burden for existing businesses and a red flag for those considering setting up shop in the Keystone state.
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Teen's shooting death could have been prevented
"There are two great days in every person's life, the day they were born - and the day they realized why."
- Rick Warren, "The Purpose-Driven Life" -
Congress should pass sweeping gun legislation
All of the aspects of President Obama's $500 million gun legislation plan could be effective in decreasing the incidence of mass shootings in the United States.
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Let's be clear when we say 'Get guns off the streets'
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan rightly said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts."
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Lighten up: Be free to be healthier this year
So how is that New Year's resolution diet going?
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After 2012 we can only hope for happier year
Our mothers taught us you only get one chance to make a first impression, but when it comes to the impression an old year leaves, 2012 may be remembered for its last.
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Recalling Robert Bork's visit to GC College
On a dark February afternoon in 1988, 25 students in a U.S. Constitutional History class waited expectantly in a little-used dining hall on the campus of Grove City College (in Grove City, Pennsylvania) for a special guest lecturer to arrive.
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The holidays can be special, and stressful
The holidays can be a special time, as well as a stressful time.
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What Obama should do about gun violence
The desolation one feels over the slaughter of innocents in Connecticut is compounded by the knowledge that under current circumstances it inevitably will happen again -- that when the shock fades, the political climate will allow it to be repeated.
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