Job fairs scheduled for military members

Service members exiting the military at a time of military downsizing can take advantage of the Hawaii Transition Summit, which involves nearly 100 potential employers and participation by the U.S. Veterans Affairs and Labor departments.

Events are set for Wednesday at Schofield Barracks and Wednesday and Thursday at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, FedEx, Bank of America and the Social Security Administration are among the firms and government agencies looking to hire at the events.

The events include participation by Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert A. McDonald and Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez.

Both officials took part in a discussion with disabled veterans Monday at the Oahu Veterans Center.

One veteran talked about job barriers to low-income former service members, including lack of phone communication and prohibitive cost of public transportation to get to a job.

Another cited a mental health stigma that employers sometimes attach to certain veterans, which acts as a barrier to employment.

"That’s a big, big issue," McDonald said in response. "We’ve got to do a better job educating the American people that mental health should not have a stigma. … Every soldier that comes back that has traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress — it’s a relatively low percentage of the total number of veterans who fight in combat, and it’s treatable."

U.S. Rep. Mark Takai, a Hawaii Demo­crat, said during the discussion that "we haven’t done a good job at the front end — front end meaning when people are in the military — developing a track so they can leave and go straight in (to a civilian job)."

In some cases a smooth transition exists, such as medic to emergency medical technician and military truck driver to civilian commercial driver, Takai said.

McDonald, Perez and Gov. David Ige will host a listening session Wednesday at the Oahu Veterans Center with female and Native Hawaiian veterans about the challenges they face seeking civilian employment.