Scott: Make hiring Florida’s heroes our business

In an effort to connect returning Florida National Guardsmen and other veterans with jobs, Governor Rick Scott urged employers to make hiring “Florida’s heroes” their business.

Throughout the state, an estimated 17 percent of returning Guardsmen are looking for work.

According to Laura Byrnes, communications manager for Workforce Connection, since Feb. 5, 2009, a total of 1,035 veterans in Citrus County accessed services — 202 in 2009, 310 in 2010, 367 in 2011 and 156 so far this year.

“Twenty-three veterans registered yesterday alone,” Byrnes said.

Of the 1,035, about 350 are “active,” currently looking for work.

Byrnes said data from the past 12 months shows older veterans (between age 45 and 64) make up the highest percentage of those veterans who came to Workforce Connection looking for work and not the younger ones just returning from deployment in Afghanistan or Iraq.

In the age 19 to 21 category, there were seven, and of those 22 to 32, there were 73, she said.   
The good news — “We’re hearing from more and more employers in Citrus County who are looking to employ veterans,” she said, especially with the passing of Florida Senate Bill 922 on Jan. 24, which creates a $10,000 tax credit for employers who hire eligible Florida National Guardsmen.

In a recent telephone press conference of Florida military veterans, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Mariano Corcilli from Miami said, “How we treat veterans has a direct impact on our national security. If we’re not taking care of veterans, if we’re not making the transition easy when they get out of the service for them to go to school and get jobs and get health care, if we’re not doing that as a country, then those people who look at joining the military as a career option are not going to do it.

“No one’s going to want to join our all-volunteer force knowing that after four or eight or 20 years they’re not going to be taken care of,” he said.

As Scott said, “These courageous men and women have served us with honor, and it is our turn to ensure veterans who are returning to civilian life have jobs when they come home.”

Chronicle reporter Nancy Kennedy can be reached at nkennedy@chronicleonline.com or 352-564-2927.