Report focuses on women Veterans and federal government employment

A report recently released by the Council on Veterans Employment looks at women service members and women Veterans, focusing on their skills and employment in the federal government.

The 15-page Report, completed by the Women Veterans Initiative Workgroup, provides data collected through their research. Some the information provided in the report includes:

• The top 10 occupations in both officer and enlisted ranks
• Women Veterans are younger, more educated, more likely to be of a different racial or ethnic group
• In 2014, 11 percent of women Veterans in the labor force between the ages of 18 and 54 were enrolled in school, as compared to 6 percent of male Veterans
• Overall, the unemployment rates for women Veterans are trending down

The primary recommendation of the report is to adopt an addendum to the government-wide Veterans Recruitment and Employment Strategic Plan to add measures specific to women Veterans and diversity among Veterans in the Plan’s existing area of leadership commitment, employment, marketing and information gateway.

The report stems from the president’s Employment of Veterans in the Federal Government executive order signed in 2009, which established the Council on Veterans Employment. The Council comprises 24 federal agencies including the Department of Veterans Affairs to advise and assist the president on improving employment opportunities for Veterans in the federal government.

VA’s Center for Women Veterans launched a nationwide women Veterans outreach campaign to raise the awareness of VA’s commitment to women who have served in the military, and to facilitate the conversation around what more needs to be done to meet their specialized needs. You can read more about that here.