Dumfries certified in hiring veterans

Dumfries is looking more veteran-friendly these days.

The town is now Virginia Values Veterans certified, which means it has demonstrated a commitment to recruiting, hiring and retaining Virginia Veterans.

The free Virginia Values Veterans program aims to educate and train organizations on the benefits of recruiting, hiring, and retaining military Veterans. Since its inception, the V3 Program has resulted in over 33,000 Veteran hires.

Mayor Derrick Wood stated “As a Veteran, I understand the challenges in transitioning from the military. V3 helps us to understand how Veteran’s unique skillset gained through military service, can benefit our civilian organization”

Currently, the town government has two open positions: a town attorney that pays as much as $125,000 annually, and a police officer that pays up to $46,500.

The recruitment portion of the hiring process is apt to change with the town’s new V3 status.

“The application process will not be very different, however; we will be making sure our job postings are included in places veterans are likely to see them. Also during our interview process, we give additional scoring considerations to veterans,” town manager Keith Rogers told Potomac Local News.

The unemployment rate for veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces at any time since September 2001—a group referred to as Gulf War-era II veterans—declined to 3.8 percent in
2018, according to a March 2019 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The jobless rate for all veterans was little changed at 3.5 percent in 2018. In August 2018, 41 percent of Gulf War-era II veterans had a service-connected disability, compared with 25 percent of all veterans.