About Hiring Our Heroes

In March of 2011, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched its Hiring our Heroes program, a year-long nationwide effort to help veterans and their spouses find meaningful employment. The Chamber started the program in partnership with the Department of Labor Veterans Employment and Training Service (DOL VETS), to improve public-private sector coordination in local communities, where veterans and their families are returning every day. Working with our extensive network of state and local chambers, DOL VETS, the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) and other strategic partners, we will do a better job of matching veteran talent with career opportunities in the private sector.

With a federation of 2,500 state and local chambers and industry associations spanning nearly every state and city and with more than three million business leaders to call on for grassroots advocacy, the Chamber has the infrastructure to lead a nationwide campaign to connect veterans and military spouses with employers.

There are four pillars of the Chamber’s Hiring our Heroes program. While the main focus of effort is on conducting 100 hiring fairs for veterans and military spouses in local communities across the country, we have also created strategic partnerships to deal with specific populations of veterans and their unique challenges in three other areas to include: a Wounded Warrior Transition Assistance Program, a Student Veterans Internship and Employment Program, and a Women Veterans and Military Spouses Employment Program. Our aggressive agenda focuses on one measure of success—jobs for the one million unemployed veterans in America.