Starbucks Joins Companies Boosting Hiring of Veterans

In a press release Wednesday morning, Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) announced that it plans to hire 10,000 U.S. military veterans and active duty spouses in the next five years. The company said that it will develop a comprehensive hiring platform for veterans and spouses “in response to record growth and in anticipation of a 500,000 person future global workforce.” Starbucks employs more than 100,000 people in the United States and about 200,000 people worldwide.

The company also said that on Veterans Day this year it will offer a free 12-ounce cup of coffee to veterans, active duty personnel and spouses as thanks for their service. Starbucks’ CEO said:

As I look at the opportunity ahead of us, we’re going to need to hire men and women with like-minded values and the right job skills in order to continue our current levels of growth. The more than one million transitioning U.S. veterans and almost one and half million military spouses — with their diverse background and experience — share our mission-driven sensibility and work ethic and can build long-term careers at Starbucks as they return home.

In January Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) said it would hire every veteran who wanted a job at a Walmart story. provided that the vet was honorably discharged within the past year. The company said it expected to hire more than 100,000 people in the next five years as a result of the program. Globally Walmart employs about 2.2 million people, including about 1.3 million in the United States.

In March, UPS Inc. (NYSE: UPS) made a commitment to hire 25,000 veterans over the next five years. UPS employs 323,000 people in the U.S. out of a global total of 399,000.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) also announced Wednesday morning that it has joined a military spouse employment program and noted that since joining 10 other companies in 2011 with a goal of hiring 100,000 veterans the group has grown to 123 companies and hired nearly 93,000 veterans in less than three years. J.P. Morgan alone has hired more than 6,000 veterans since 2011. The bank counts a global employee total of about 260,000 employees.