Can big data solve veteran unemployment?

The military trains service members in many jobs with close but imperfect civilian corollaries, leaving veterans with the right job skills but the wrong certifications. Military service demands other skills that civilian jobs don’t (managing violence, repairing weapons, defending convoys). But where that unfamiliar experience entails universal qualifications (leadership, judgment, communication), employers don’t always know how to recognize them. New veterans, all the while, must navigate the job market — a place that can be hostile to anyone — as they’re also re-entering the rest of the civilian world.

A coalition of tech entrepreneurs, open-government advocates and private companies launched a novel experiment mashing together data about job-seeking vets and vet-friendly employers, all in the hopes that we might better understand why so many vets can’t find work.

By Emily Badger

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/18/can-big-data-solve-veteran-unemployment/