Job fair for military veterans on Thursday to feature over 40 employers

RecruitMilitary is holding a job fair for Pittsburgh-area veterans from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 3 at Heinz Field.

More than 40 employers who are hiring will be at the fair. Among the organizations expected to attend Thursday’s event are the FBI, DeVry University, Catholic Cemeteries Association, Colonial Life and Allegheny County. RecruitMilitary, which connects employers and veterans through job fairs and boards, is a subsidiary of Bradley-Morris, a military-focused recruiting company.

Veterans who can’t attend the job fair can register at recruitmilitary.com to browse more than 200,000 jobs available nationally through a partnership with Google.

One of the search features allows veterans to type in their Military Occupational Specialty code, which then matches positions held in the armed services to an equivalent civilian job.

“There are so many people who do want to hire veterans. But the veterans, they don’t know what exactly they’re qualified for,” said Jennifer Hadac, director of military & spouse career resources with RecruitMilitary. “The tool really allows them to align their skill set.”

RecruitMilitary has held 20 events in Pittsburgh since 2008 that have drawn more than 4,100 attendees.

The Pittsburgh job fair is the second this year and one of 125 events across the U.S. that RecruitMilitary will hold in 2019.

Because unemployment hits veterans and their spouses differently, the job fair also is open to both.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the unemployment rate for veterans who have served since 2001 was 3.8% in 2018. For active-duty spouses, the unemployment rate was 24%, according to a 2017 survey conducted for Military OneSource, which provides service members with a range of resources at no cost.