OpenWorks - a Franchise Company Committed to Veterans
The month of November always brings the focus back to our nation’s veterans. Of course, they deserve the national attention each year on Veteran’s Day as they have all been instrumental in protecting the freedoms and rights we all enjoy. At OpenWorks we fully support those veterans and are committed to contributing to their active employment after retiring from the military.Few people realize it, but it has been proven time and time again that finding a job is one of the biggest obstacles veterans face when they leave the military. In fact, according to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, around 77% of veterans have struggled through unemployment...and more than a quarter of those veterans end up searching for more than a year for a job.But there is good news! The unemployment rate for post 9/11 veterans peaked in January of 2011 at 15.2%. Since then, it has fallen to 6.6% of current veterans in 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.However, even though the percentage has fallen, our nation’s veterans still consider getting help finding a job to be of supreme importance. In fact, CNN recently asked veterans what Veterans Day meant to them and many said that constant and sensitive help year-round is more important, such as help finding jobs.That’s exactly why OpenWorks considers hiring veterans at our corporate office and throughout our franchise network to be so important. When appropriate, we reach out to local military bases to post available jobs for retiring or retired military. We are even working on a new section of our website directed specifically to veterans and transitioning military.Although we already employee multiple veterans at our corporate office, we want to continue to employ veterans and work with them to help out in the surrounding community. In fact, one of our veteran employees is already capitalizing on this focus - we are helping him work with homeless veterans in the Phoenix area as we speak!We are proud to support our nation’s heroes this November and we look forward to strengthening OpenWorks' commitment to retired service members in the near and far future.