Nearly 700 service members, veterans and their spouses attended the "Hiring Our Heroes" job fair at the Idaho Center yesterday, the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce reports, and 81 of them got job offers at the fair. "In addition, many follow-up phone calls and interviews were scheduled yesterday, as the companies present at the fair plan to hire 327 additional new employees over the next 12 months," the chamber said in a statement today; the fair attracted more than 100 employers.

The latest figures for veteran unemployment rates in Idaho compared to the overall population, from the 2010 Census, showed that while non-veterans in Idaho had an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent, veterans were at 12.8 percent.

The job fair, one of a series of such events across the country sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and various veterans and military organizations, was co-sponsored in Boise by organizations including the Boise Chamber, the Idaho Department of Labor, KTVB-TV and more.