‘Hiring Our Heroes' to host veterans job fair Monday

PITTSBURGH — They fought for our country only to return home to fight another battle on the job front.

According to the Veterans Administration, Pennsylvania has more than 900,000 veterans, the fourth highest in the country.

Nearly 7,500 are expected to return to the state by the end of 2013.

“I've worked within the communication and signal fields within the Pennsylvania National Guard,” said veteran Andy West.

West started his military career with the Army and then the Pennsylvania National Guard.

He was deployed five times in five years.

He used that experience to secure at job as the information security architect at UPMC, but it was not easy.

"To find work just to make that match in terms of this is what I've done as an enlisted serviceman in the Army, here are all the other skills that I also bring to the table from my civilian education as well,” he told Channel 11’s Jennifer Abney.

According to the U.S. Labor Department, in 2011, the unemployment rate for veterans who had served since 9/11 topped 12 percent, compared to about 9 percent for the general population.

It is even higher for younger veterans. The unemployment rate for veterans between the ages of 18-24 is 29 percent.

John Bittner is the veterans representative at Careerlinks in Pittsburgh.

"The biggest challenges I face is finding suitable employment for veterans in the Pittsburgh market," he said.

Bittner also said many veterans face the bleak reality of a much lower-paying or even minimum wage job.

However, he added that more employers are starting to see the value of hiring military members, like UPMC.

UPMC is going after more veterans, and one of the recruiters said it's a win-win situation.

“Individuals from the military have the core competencies that are important to UPMC,” said Lauren Lloyd, the director of recruitment. “They understand the value of teamwork. They understand the importance of decision making.”

Bittner said companies are starting to match military duties with civilian jobs.

“We help the veteran identify this is what I did in the military, but this is how I emphasize the skills that the employers in Pittsburgh value,” he explained.

West hopes more companies will follow in UPMC’s footsteps and help these soldiers become productive and employed civilians.

“There’s a lot of challenges that our veterans coming back are facing right now,” he said. “There are people who have gone and served well in a variety of difficult circumstances. To me, it’s the least that we can do.”

There will be a military job fair on Monday. The program Hiring our Heroes will hold the event at the VA Butler Healthcare Auditorium on New Castle Road. It runs from 9 a.m. - noon.

For more information on the job fair, click here.

WPXI