CIVILIAN LIFE: Young veterans have trouble finding work
Scarce jobs, stress may be factors
July 28, 2006
• Troops headed for Baghdad
WASHINGTON -- Young veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan
are having a harder time finding jobs than their peers who didn't
serve in the military.
Last year, about one in six veterans ages 20 to 24 was jobless,
nearly double the rate for nonveterans of that age. It was brighter
in the second quarter of this year, when young vets had an 11.2%
jobless rate, but that was still higher than the 8% for nonvets
their age and more than twice the overall unemployment rate.
"With the prestige of a combat veteran, I thought I'd hold
a little more weight than the average high school or college graduate,"
said Jason Seidel of Battle Creek, 25, who served a year in Iraq
during his four-year Army stint. He has spent two fruitless months
searching for a decent-paying job that doesn't require a college
degree.
"The reality is there's no jobs there at all," he said.
"With all the factory cutbacks, everyone's scrambling to get
what they can."
Labor and veterans officials are surveying young vets to try to
find out why. But experts have some theories:
# Some veterans are entering the work force for the first time
and aren't adept at explaining their military skills to civilian
employers.
# Some who saw combat in Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from post-traumatic
stress disorder, which makes it difficult for them to work and makes
employers leery of hiring them.
# Permanent jobs that offer middle-class wages and benefits are
scarcer these days in some regions.
Historically, veterans have enjoyed a lower unemployment rate than
the population as a whole. Employers generally want to hire veterans,
said Charles Ciccolella, assistant secretary for veterans employment
and training with the Department of Labor.
"They're disciplined, and they come to work on time,"
Ciccolella said. "They've got leadership and management"
skills.
But young vets have had higher unemployment rates than their nonvet
peers every year since 1990, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
To help returning vets, the VA offers a three-day workshop that
includes training in resume writing, interviewing and salary negotiations.
Veterans also can check in with one of 3,500 government-run employment
offices across the country that give priority to veterans for job
training and placement.
Dustin Dockins of Rockford, Ill., a staff sergeant with the Army
Reserve who returned from a year of noncombat duty in Afghanistan
in May 2005, found landing a job tougher than he had anticipated.
"There was a lot of stress trying to get it all lined up,"
said Dockins, who was 25 when he began looking.
After almost three months, he took a civilian job as administrator
of an Army Reserve unit in Rockford.
"It's incredibly discouraging, and frankly, it's a betrayal,"
said labor professor Bob Bruno of the University of Illinois at
Chicago. "There's a strong consensus that if you put your life
on the line with some kind of service for your country, you should
be rewarded with the opportunity to earn the American dream."
Detroit
Free Press
