Rhode Island’s entire congressional delegation and the state’s Director of Labor and Training joined Major General Kevin McBride, the Adjutant General and Commanding General of the Rhode Island National Guard in urging more than 50 employers seeking job applicants to hire the heroes at a job fair sponsored in part by the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Held at the National Guard Armory in Warwick, Rhode Island the Hiring Our Heroes Job Fair attracted 225 applicants including those young men and women recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan who make up to 20% of the unemployment rate among veterans.

General McBride expressed his concern that not all returning veterans will have a job.

Senator Jack Reed told the gathering, “The best way to thank the soldiers is to give them a job.”

Labor and Training Director Charles Fogarty said “ You always win when you hire a veteran.”

The idea of a job fair was first discussed in April at the ESGR Northeast Leadership Conference and rapidly gained the support of the governor’s office and other state chairs.

The ESGR also incorporated the Best Practice  of creating a database to track and baseline the target population for future job fairs.

Nationwide there are more than a million unemployed veterans.

The local job fair was designed to put veterans back to work

Among the jobs available during the job fair were in  areas of food service, insurance, cable, engineering security, technical support and child care. Some of the applicants were given on site interviews to give the process of hiring a head start.

Picture: 2nd Lieutenant Amy Newkirk, 143d Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, interviews for a position with a prospective employer.