First Lady Michelle Obama announced new, large scale public-private partnerships Thursday with two pro-business industry groups, the International Franchise Association and U.S. Chamber of Commerce — partnerships that, taken together, could help create job opportunities for 100,000 military veterans and their families.
The two groups will partner with the Joining Forces initiative, founded by the first lady and Dr. Jill Biden to support veterans and military families. During a launch event Thursday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headquarters, Mrs. Obama stressed the urgency of addressing unemployment among veterans.
The first lady noted that last week, “the overall unemployment rate dipped, yet the rate of Iraq and Afghanistan’s veterans continued to rise.” Unemployment among post-9/11 veterans currently stands at 12.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The larger of the two partnerships is with the IFA, which “has committed to hire 80,000 veterans and military spouses — which will include 5,000 of our wounded warriors — by 2014,” Mrs. Obama said. The second joint effort is with U.S. Chamber of Commerce member companies and the Pentagon’s Military Spouse Employment Program, which the first lady said “has committed to hire 20,000 military spouses at companies like Microsoft, Citi and Home Depot.”
The IFA represents more than 1,100 franchise businesses, and according to U.S. Navy Captain Brad Cooper, executive director of the White House Joining Forces Initiative, the IFA’s commitment “represents the largest employment commitment seen to date from the private sector.”
But the definition of what it means to “hire” 80,000 veterans in the franchise industry is complicated. It might be more accurate to say that the partnerships will provide a combination of jobs at existing franchises and opportunities for veterans to purchase franchises of their own. According to IFA spokesman Matt Haller, it remains to be seen at this early stage how different IFA members will decide to respond to the industry group’s initiative to spur member companies to participate in the program.
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article courtesy of TheHuffingtonPost.com
