GE: Employment of 5000 Veterans in the Next 5 Years

General Electric (GE) announced on Monday that it plans to hire 5,000 veterans in the United States over the next five years and invest $580 million in expanding its aviation business.

This is part of a four-day event hosted by the company and its partners in Washington, DC, which will focus on issues such as manufacturing and job creation in the United States.

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt is president of President Obama’s 27-member employment and competitiveness advisory board. Jeff Immelt said in a statement on Friday: "We should have confidence in taking action and restore Americans' competitiveness."

General Electric stated that its "Employ Our Hero" cooperation project will help U.S. veterans find suitable jobs. At the same time, its aviation department will increase more than 400 new production jobs and will open three new factories next year. They are located in Ellisville, Mississippi, Auburn, Alabama, and Dayton, Ohio. The company stated that this is part of its plan to create or rebuild 16 factories and more than 12,000 new jobs.

In addition, as part of the President’s Employment and Competitiveness Advisory Committee’s plan to train more than 10,000 engineers in the United States each year, GE plans to double the number of its engineering staff to over 5,000.

The company also plans to pilot medical cost reduction programs in Louisville, Kentucky and Erie, Pennsylvania, and plans to open several production training centers in Houston and Cincinnati to help employees improve their work skills.

Following the massive layoffs during the recession, General Electric has hired about 9,000 additional employees in the United States since 2009 and announced plans to hire another 4,500.