Military

Federal Government Is Major Employer Of Veterans

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published November 11, 2013 at 3:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 10 years ago.

Veterans now make up almost 30 percent of the federal workforce and not surprisingly, 45 percent of Defense Department employees nationwide are veterans.

California is home to more veterans than any other state in the nation. And San Diego has more federal jobs than any other region in the state. So the results of a study by the Office of Personnel Management are interesting.

Veterans now make up almost 30 percent of the federal workforce. The new report also shows 29 percent of the federal government’s new hires last year were veterans.

Milton Roe is a San Diego Navy veteran, who found it easy to apply the electrical skills he learned in the military to work on base as a civilian employee.

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“Being ex-military, you already have certain qualities that they’re looking for,” Roe said. “They want people that are go-getters, people that are leaders, people who know how to follow orders. So yes, it was a really smooth transition.”

Not surprisingly, 45 percent of Defense Department employees nationwide are veterans.

In the last five years, the number of disabled veterans employed by the federal government has risen to more than 200,000.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.