Every year an estimated 200,000 service members transition out of the military. As of 2022, there were over 250,000 unemployed veterans in the U.S. These individuals are instilled with foundational skills such as leadership, integrity, and teamwork along with technical skills and abilities from their time in service and represent a potential solution to manufacturing skill gaps and lack of employment.

Since 2012, the effort to hire veterans and tap in to soldiers finishing their service has increased significantly. The reason the number of veteran hiring programs ramped up beginning in 2012 is because Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) published a business case for hiring veterans, written by a Ph.D. and based on 10 research-informed propositions on the value on the value of veterans in a competitive business environment.