Southeast Georgia industries and economic leaders are tapping into “underutilized groups” to combat a predicted labor shortage, including a new focus on former military service members.

A 2023 workforce study commissioned by the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority predicted a significant labor shortage 

by 2025 as industrial labor demand increased amid a tightening labor market. Justin Farquhar, the Regional Industrial Sustainability & Engagement’s 

(RISE) vice president, said workforce studies found the region’s military population to be underutilized.

He said about 4,000 people transition out of the military from regional installations like Fort Stewart or Hunter Army Airfield each year. Roughly 40% stay in the region after service, but employers involved in the study reported only about 10% of their workforce was former military.

“We have all these people transitioning out of the military … military spouses,” Farquhar said. “We felt like if we could tap into that population a little more then that would help our overall regional workforce.”

RISE, a regional partnership serving Bryan, Bulloch, Chatham, Effingham and Liberty counties, supports county development authorities in putting on employer forums and hosts a bimonthly military working group connecting military leaders, veteran nonprofits, spouses, transitioning service members and local employers.

At a military employer forum in 2025, the focus was removing barriers to hiring veterans.

“We brought together key stakeholders for about half a day of conversations around what barriers exist … and what can we do to try and remove those barriers,” Farquhar said. 

Some regional employers have focused on veteran hiring for years. Gulfstream Aerospace reached Gold-Level “Military Friendly Employer” status for 2025 with more than 4,000 veteran employees.

“Gulfstream’s been doing this for a long time,” Farquhar said. “They’ve had a very focused effort over many years to recruit those populations and build out support for them within their company culture.”

Those efforts inspired the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, which hired its first military and community relations liaison in 2025, just about a month after hosting its grand opening ceremony. 

Meet the Metaplant’s military liaison

HMGMA established Jason Zdunich as the Metaplant’s military and community relations liaison in April 2025. After 37 years in the U.S. Army, Zdunich retired in 2023 and later joined Hyundai, where he initially led educational partnerships at the Metaplant. 

“I found myself supporting HR at military job fairs and interpreting resumes for them,” Zdunich said. “When someone from the service would call, it was always directed to me. I have friends at Gulfstream, JCB and Daniel Defense … they all have a dedicated … military recruiter, and I was like, we need that.”

One of the main focuses of Zdunich’s role is connecting with transitioning service members and helping them translate military experience into civilian careers.

“It’s like – it doesn’t matter that I retired as a lieutenant colonel,” Zdunich said. “What’s that going to mean in the civilian world? We don’t know how to write resumes because we use acronyms and action words that the civilian world doesn’t understand.”

Zdunich partners with programs like the military’s Transition Assistance Program and The Manufacturing Institute’s Heroes MAKE America initiative to host resume workshops and mock interviews. The institute offers training programs in logistics, aviation certification and automation and robotics — the latter created partly in response to workforce needs from manufacturers like Hyundai.

HMGMA hired four of the seven graduates from the first Automation and Robots training cohort in 2025.

Some future Metaplant recruits, Zdunich reaches out to even outside of specific training events.

Caterrica Walker was one of those recruits. She spent more than a decade in the military before joining Hyundai in September 2025.

After leaving the service in 2024 and finishing her HR degree, Walker began searching for a civilian job in Coastal Georgia, hoping to remain in the region.

“It was scary — the unknown — one of the most nerve-wracking transitions I’ve ever had to face,” she said.

Walker said she submitted about 60 job applications and went through numerous interviews that felt unfamiliar after more than a decade in the military.

“Sometimes I would freeze up on a question,” she said. “I got into the room and it was very intimidating because I didn’t feel understood.”

Walker said Zdunich made Hyundai’s hiring process different. He reached out to her on LinkedIn, reviewed her resume, connected with the hiring manager and offered interview advice while staying in regular contact.

“Jason was really a big factor in me getting this job,” Walker said. “He was like a mentor.”

Walker said no other regional companies she had applied to had a dedicated military outreach role focused on supporting veterans through the hiring process. Having someone who had served made a difference, she said, because Zdunich understood military experience without requiring her to translate every detail into civilian terms. 

Today, Walker still works in the same building as Zdunich at HMGMA and consistently connects with him and other veterans at the plant. Recently, Zdunich rallied her and other veterans to host a hot dog lunch on Fort Stewart, grilling about 600 and handing them out to service members. 

She said programs like those — along with continued recognition and support for veterans — can help make the difficult transition from military to civilian life more successful.

A mutual benefit

Walker and Zdunich said veterans bring strong qualities that address common workforce challenges such as attendance, punctuality and commitment.

Zdunich said veterans have much of the hard skills needed for employment, but veterans also bring valuable “soft skills” that can be just as important as technical qualifications. Leadership, discipline, time management and emotional intelligence are traits many service members develop through years of training and responsibility, he said. 

And even when veterans are not hired into formal leadership roles, they often become informal leaders within teams because of their ability to communicate, solve problems and stay mission-focused.

Walker said employer support to veterans also contributes to alleviating mental health struggles among the veteran population. 

“A lot of veterans get out not knowing what they’re going to do … and there’s a lot of fear in that unknown,” she said. “Some can’t move past that. They’re left without employment. They don’t know how they’re going to feed their families. That can really take a toll on someone’s mental health.” 

She said this is why partnerships with employers and community organizations are critical – not only to create career pathways but also to reduce stress and support veterans’ overall well-being as they adjust to civilian life.

Looking ahead

Zdunich estimates HMGMA has hired about 120 veterans. In 2025 alone, he said he had more than 165 engagements outside of the building. Going into 2026, Zdunich said his goals are to hire more veterans than last year and to eventually grow his team. 

He said he also hopes to host more events to bring the region’s veteran population together, whether its partnering with cities or counties to host Veterans Day events or homecoming celebrations for soldiers returning from deployment. 

Zdunich encourages area employers to tap into this promising workforce population. Where to start? Reach out to him for advice on how to start via email at Jason.Zdunich@hmgma.com 

Lucille Lannigan is a regional growth and development reporter for the Bryan County News. Reach her at llannigan@morrisnews.com.