North Carolina Rep. Charles Smith, a Cumberland County Democrat, is pushing legislation in the General Assembly to expand the state’s preferential hiring of those affiliated with the military.
House Bill 114, titled “Employment Preference for Military Personnel,” rewrites the state’s general statute section on state employment preferences for active duty service members, veterans and military spouses to broaden who is eligible.
Based on current statute, North Carolina only gives preferential hiring for state employment to service members who served “during a period of war.” The last period of war, according to the statute, was the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975.
“It’s just a little antiquated,” Smith told CityView. “There probably aren’t too many Vietnam vets actively looking for state government employment. So, is this statute being utilized as much as it could be? Probably not.”
Rep. Edward C. Goodwin, a Republican whose district includes parts of northeastern North Carolina, is another primary sponsor of the bill. Goodwin is a Vietnam War veteran who served as a nuclear weapon specialist in the Air Force from 1972 to 1976.
The bill’s other primary sponsors are Republican Rep. Kyle Hall, who represents Forsyth and Stokes counties, and Rep. Eric Ager, a Buncombe County Democrat.
Smith said the legislation tackles two problems: unemployment among veterans and military spouses and the state’s job vacancy rate. About a fifth of state jobs are vacant, NC Newsline reported in March. Most are with North Carolina’s health and human services, transportation and adult correction departments.
Smith said the hope is that HB114 would make it easier for the state’s over 680,000 veterans to fill the vacancies. According to data compiled by the Housing Assistance Council, a nonprofit dedicated to housing issues, 3.9% of veterans in North Carolina are unemployed. This is slightly higher than the state’s March unemployment rate of 3.7%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Cumberland County has the highest population of veterans in the state, 2023 data from the Carolina Population Center at UNC-Chapel Hill shows. Of the 52,831 veterans living in the county, the Housing Assistance Council found 5.1% are unemployed.
Military spouses also face high unemployment rates; 21% are unemployed, according to Blue Star Families, a national nonprofit military family support network that recently launched a local chapter in the Fayetteville region. That’s five times the national unemployment rate for March.
The nonprofit’s 2024 Military Family Lifestyle Survey found that a quarter of North Carolina’s unemployed military spouses surveyed want or need paid employment. Of those who said they actively looked for work since their spouse’s permanent change of station, 22% had yet to find employment.
HB114 hopes to help get those spouses hired by the state by making more of them eligible for preferential hiring. Under the bill, spouses of honorably discharged veterans, members of the National Guard and the Army Reserves, and active-duty service members would be eligible for employment preference with the state. Currently, only spouses of deceased or disabled veterans are eligible.
“We want to incentivize military families to stay in North Carolina when the service member or members within the family are transitioning out,” Smith said. “And I think a good way to do that is if the spouse is actively employed with the state, working toward retirement, [then] they have not just a job, but a career. I think they’re more likely to stay.”
The final group included in HB114 is active-duty service members, so long as their command approves off-duty employment with the state and the positions don’t violate their branch’s regulations.
HB114 received a favorable vote in April from the Committee on Homeland Security and Military and Veterans Affairs. It now waits to be heard by the Committee on Commerce and Economic Development before being sent to the Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House Committee.
The bill has until the crossover date of May 8 to pass in the House and therefore be eligible for consideration in the Senate.
“I’m optimistic,” Smith said. “I haven’t heard any opposition.”
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville.
