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Veteran Unemployment
English 102
Student Three 12/3/2012

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Veteran Unemployment No veteran should come home from Iraq and Afghanistan to an unemployment check. Loyalty, discipline, respect, leadership; those are values that any employer would like to see in new employees. And those are the values that make veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan our country's next greatest generation. Yet Americas newest veterans face serious employment challenges. In 2010, the unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans was a staggering 11.5 percent, leaving over 239,000 combat veterans struggling to find jobs in the most severe economic recession in decades. In January, the Iraq and Afghanistan-era veteran unemployment rate hit a staggering 15.2 percent while the national unemployment rate was 9.0 percent. Approximately 278,000 new veterans were out of work and looking for jobs. This continues the pattern that weve seen for more than three years now. Unemployment rates for new veterans are high and rising. In 2008, the average unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistanera veterans was 7.3 percent, and in 2009 this number rose to 10.2 percent. In 2010, the average unemployment rate of new veterans was 11.5 percent (Canales, 2011). Although unemployment is not a new problem, the difficulty to successfully transition from active duty military to a career is far different from that of a transition from one job to another for a civilian. Many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans leave the active-duty military only to find that their skills are not understood by civilian employers. One obstacle returning veterans face in their employment search is simply explaining their military experience to a civilian employer. According to a 2007 survey by Military.com, 61 percent of employers do not believe they have a complete understanding of the qualifications ex-service members offer, and more than three-quarters of veterans entering the civilian workforce reported an inability to effectively translate their military skills to civilian terms.(Lutz, 2011) Veterans also feel they lack critical career advancement skills, such as networking and salary negotiation (see fig. 1.).

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Fig. 1. Veterans surveyed about career transition. (Lutz, 2011)

National Guardsmen and Reservists, who typically serve in the military part-time, are seeing their civilian lives disrupted by multiple combat tours. Many reservists returning from combat are not being promptly reemployed, or are not receiving the pay, pensions, health care coverage, and other benefits that they are entitled to. More than 40 percent of reservists lose income when they mobilize to deploy. Reserve component small-business owners are especially challenged by deployments. About 22 percent of self-employed reservists said that their recent activation had been a serious or very serious problem for their business (Williamson, 2009). The experience of previous generations of veterans suggests that todays veterans may continue to struggle economically for years to come. Vietnam veterans earned significantly less than their civilian peers for decades after the wars end. The passage of the landmark Post -9/11 GI Bill will make college affordable for an entire generation of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. But for the hundreds of thousands of veterans seeking employment or struggling to reintegrate into their civilian jobs, more must be done. This is where organizations such as the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) come in. IAVA is a 21st Century veterans organization dedicated to standing with the 2.3 million veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan from their first day home through the rest of their lives. IAVA delivers services, resources and support to our membership of over 100,000 Iraq and Afghanistan member Veterans. They

VETERAN UNEMPLOYMENT have a three-pronged approach to generating transformative change in the lives of veterans and their families in four critical impact areas: health, education, employment and community building, in just the last year, IAVA has connected hundreds of veterans with employers, helped over 100,000 go to college on the new GI Bill, and provided mental health support to over 50,000 (Iraq, 2011). Employing todays veterans is a top priority for IAVA, and they are responding in a number of ways to slow the unemployment rate increases among veterans.

On Capitol Hill, IAVA is advocating for bipartisan legislation that will bring some much-needed relief to unemployed veterans. One such piece of legislation is the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, signed on November 21, 2011. The VOW to Hire Heroes Act includes provisions that will make the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) mandatory for service members transitioning out of the military to help them secure jobs through resume-writing workshops and career counseling. TAP also helps veterans translate their military skills and certifications in applicable jobs in the civilian work force, expands education opportunities for older veterans, and provides disabled veterans additional vocational rehabilitation. The President is also doing his part to help curb veteran unemployment by proposing to increase tax credits to employers that hire veteran employees. The Returning Heroes Tax Credit will offer a tax credit of $2,400 for every short-term unemployed veteran hire and $4,800 for every long-term unemployed veteran hire. The Wounded Warriors Tax Credit will increase the existing tax credit for firms that hire veterans with service-connected disabilities who have been unemployed both long-term and short-term up to $9,600 (Flavin, 2011).

As a veteran who has gone through this entire process I can tell you from experience that even though these programs being instated and enforced is with good intentions, they desperately need updated. For example, when I went through the TAP program in 2011, I basically watched a serious of videos to tell me how to adapt to the civilian world. The narrator of the video was Kelly McGillis. If you

VETERAN UNEMPLOYMENT do not know who that is, she played Charlie in the movie Top Gun. It was released in1986, 26 years ago. I would say it is time to give that program an update. Another issue that must be addressed, what is considered military friendly? Many schools claim to be military friendly, yet accept absolutely no credits from military friendly. The University of Pittsburgh is one example, they do just that, PITT will gladly accept money from the G.I. Bill, but will not accept any credits from training. My good friend Steve was in the 75 th Ranger Regiment and graduated Ranger School, but couldnt even get a credit for physical education. That is just silly. I recommend an actual list of requirements dictated by the military for a college to be considered military friendly. Even with all the problems we may have, hope is not lost, with Washington and various organizations fighting to ensure all our heroes have jobs all year long. And with the countrys continued support, we can ensure that veterans come home to a nation that values their experience, not to an unemployment check.

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References Canales, M. (2011) Employ the greatest generation. Retrieved from IAVA.org. Flavin, M. (5 AUG 2011) Putting our veterans back to work. Retrieved from Whitehouse.gov. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. (2011) IAVA Mission and History. Retrieved from IAVA.org. Lutz, E. (September 2011) Study reveals profound disconnect between employers and transitioning military personnel. Retrieved from Military.com. Williamson, V., et al. (January 2009) Careers after Combat. Retrieved from IAVA.org.