Home Depot Vows to Hire Vets

The Home Depot’s recruiting effort, Operation Career Front, will work with the federal departments of Labor, (DoL) Defense and Veterans Affairs to connect service members to career opportunities in their retail stores.

In addition, the Home Depot is also interested in hiring military spouses and other dependents – including those in transition from military to civilian life, and separating active duty service members, officials said in a DoL news release. CEO Bob Nardelli told Fortune magazine that the world’s largest home-improvement chain expects to hire more than 10,000 veterans this year.

Separately Tuesday, the DoL published draft regulations in the Federal Register that interpret the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act of 1994 (USERRA) that is designed to protect service members from employment discrimination (See DoL Proposes Regulations Clarifying USERRA ).

“Military men and women have always been there for us, now it’s our turn to be there for them.” said US Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao in the news release.

The company also announced earlier this year that it was undertaking an initiative with AARP to bring more older employees to its stores. (See Home Depot to Recruit Older Workers ).

Home Depot has 1,800 stores employing 300,000 people across the United States, Canada and Mexico.