Walmart plans to hire 100,000 veterans

GREEN BAY - A big-box retailer is making a push to hire veterans returning from service.

Walmart announced Tuesday it will hire 100,000 veterans over the course of the next five years.

So what might this mean in our area?

Walmart's pledge targets veterans who have been honorably discharged within the last 12 months. Veterans will receive a priority status for open positions.

Walmart's U.S. president and CEO Bill Simon said in a statement, "Through their service, veterans give us a land of freedom. When they return, it must be to a land of possibility."

For many returning area veterans that land of possibility begins at the Green Bay Job Center.

“We work on resumes, we work on the cover letters, interviewing skills," said Jim Warner, Job Center disabled veteran outreach program specialist. 

Jim Warner spent 21 years in the Navy. He works in the outreach program helping about a dozen veterans of all ages each day.

"They bring to work with them a work ethic. They show up to work on time, they care about who they work for," said Warner. 

Education is an option, but Warner says the military may have given many veterans the skills they need already.

"Whether it be a tech school, a four-year degree, or some will continue just to use their on the job training to get right into the work force and go to work," said Warner.

Veterans say the Walmart offer can be good for a soldier's pocketbook.

"Being deployed so many times, their job has been gone. It's been rearranged, redesigned, moved, and it puts a large financial strain on the young soldier across the country," said Dave Behrend, VFW Post 7534 Commander.

Such a job can also bring peace of mind.

"To keep occupied in anything that you can find yourself to do that's feasible, by all means do it. To sit home and do nothing, that's not good," said Behrend.

No new positions will be created under the Walmart program.

Hiring is scheduled to begin Memorial Day.