USAA recently launched a $500 million initiative to help U.S. veterans with “meaningful careers,” “financial security,” and “well-being,” as roughly half of American veterans leave their first post-military jobs within the first year.
The 2024 Active Duty Spouse Survey and the Department of War’s Transition Assistance Program previously found that roughly half of U.S. veterans leave their first post-military jobs within the first year of employment. USAA CEO Juan C. Andrade recently told Fortune that he believes one of the main reasons behind the high rate of veterans leaving post-military jobs is a lack of helpful transition services for service members.
In November, USAA announced that it would be launching the “Honor Through Action” program and investing $500,000 over the next five years to help veterans and their families improve their careers, financial security, and well-being.
“USAA will honor and celebrate our military community through advocacy in action, fueled by a $500 million investment over the next five years into meaningful careers, financial security and well-being,” the company stated. “This commitment will bring together partners across the public, private and nonprofit sectors to create meaningful, measurable change on the issues that matter most to veterans and their families.”
Commenting on the new program, Andrade told Fortune, “What we created here since I took over as CEO is a completely revamped way of hiring our veterans and military spouses. This is not just for the benefit of USAA—this is for the benefit of the military community.”
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According to Hiring Our Heroes, the unemployment rate for military spouses has been around 22% over the past 10 years, which is over four times higher than the 4.6% nationwide unemployment rate. Additionally, Fortune reported that a 2024 Pentagon survey found that military spouses are 136 percent more likely to be unemployed within six months when military members are required to relocate for a military assignment.
“While there’s a lot of organizations that are very well-meaning and do some very good work, the approach has been fragmented,” Andrade told Fortune. “The problem with private sector companies is [if they] have not had that experience of service, or if they don’t have a large population of employees that serve, it’s very difficult to understand the fact that they’ve lost their tribe. The fact that, in a lot of ways, they’ve lost their sense of belonging to something greater than self.”
Fortune reported that USAA is planning on hosting a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation program in March to address the issue of employment for U.S. veterans. The outlet noted that USAA is also preparing to host events with SHRM, a non-profit and human resources association, to discuss ways to boost military hiring in the United States.
