NEW YORK—A new Workforce1 Veterans Career Center on Madison Avenue in Manhattan is “the only center in the nation of this kind,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the center’s opening Tuesday.
The city has 15 other Workforce1 Career Centers located throughout the five boroughs, which serve the general population. Last year, these centers helped more than 800 veterans get jobs. This new branch only serves veterans, with a fellow veteran as the manager. The center is expected to get 1,250 veterans into employment this year—nearly 50 percent more than last year’s figure.
The center will translate military experience into skill sets required for regular jobs in society.
“If you can drive a convoy to find [improvised explosive devices], you can drive a bus; if you can fix an F-16 [fighter jet], you can fix someone’s fleet,” Speaker Christine C. Quinn said.
There are currently 8,600 unemployed veterans in New York City, according to city data.
The average national unemployment rate is currently 8.2 percent, while the unemployment rate among veterans is 12.2 percent.
Continuing Mission on the Home Front
Anthony Morvillo, the manager of the new Workforce1 Veterans Career Center, returned to civilian life after 11 years in service. He had not written a resume in 14 years.
“Times have changed. I had never applied for a job online before; I had to learn a new system,” Morvillo said.
For Morvillo, the hardest part about returning to work was getting access to job recruitment agencies.
“Everyone goes to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs; however, the services there are overwhelmed,” he said. Many veterans were unaware of other agencies, so Workforce1 is there to provide alternatives.
The center goes with the military motto: “We will never leave someone behind.” If a veteran doesn’t get the job, “Workforce1 Center continues to double the effort to make them competitive in the workforce” said Terrance Holliday, commissioner of Mayor’s Office of Veterans’ Affairs. Holliday also operates a suit closet to help veterans dress for interviews.
Success
Two weeks after opening, Workforce1 Veterans Career Center already had success stories. Luke, a veteran who was discharged for bad conduct, was near homelessness. Having that on his record, many employers did not want to hire him.
Morvillo saw that Luke was a good guy. As a veteran himself, he felt that the dismissal was not Luke’s fault.
“He didn’t have the resources to help him,” Morvillo said. The center found that Luke had some technical experience from the military. He got an interview the next day, and was placed in an automotive job in the Bronx.
Job Retention
Brian Engdahl, a psychologist who has been providing vocational consultation to veterans since 1979, described Workforce1 Veterans Career Center as “way more organized and sincere than any we have seen in the past.”
“That said, as with most rush-to-serve-them movements, there is little evaluation of their effectiveness that we can cite,” he said.
According to Engdahl, the number of veterans employed is not equivalent to the number of veterans who can keep a job.
He noted job retention has been an issue in successful veteran employment programs. Veterans in the federally funded Volunteers of America programs were hired at higher rates than the national average—63 percent compared with 45 percent nationally—and earned wages higher than the national average, according to a Volunteers of America report on veterans released in January.
As successful as the program was, just 64 percent of veterans employed through Volunteers of America still had a job after 180 days, according to the report.
“That doesn’t mean that they are not effective, but that I’ve not yet seen reports of success rates,” he said.
With reporting by Amelia Pang
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