Special Report: Returning Veterans having Tough Time Finding Jobs
Veterans returning from tours of duty overseas face a bleak job market at home, according to a published report.
Employment prospects are especially dismal for young veterans and for those searching in Illinois, the Chicago Sun-Times reported in Sunday’s editions.
I’ve filled out dozens of applications, said Blue Island resident Angelina Summerfield, 28, who cannot find a job despite a resume that includes two tours in Iraq as a Marine sergeant.
Nationally, the unemployment rate for vets between ages 20 and 24 was 16 percent in 2005, compared with 9 percent for non-veterans in the same age group, the Sun-Times reported. The overall unemployment rate last year was 5.1 percent.
Experts cite a variety of reasons for veterans’ high unemployment…
Managers today are less likely to have personal connections to the military and don’t seek soldiers out as job applicants, said Robert Bruno, a professor at the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan also have not boosted the U.S. economy.
Michael McCoy, 24, said he had to fight a perceived stigma from potential employers who were worried about psychological problems like post-traumatic stress disorder.
You’ve been to war, and they think you’re a dangerous guy, said McCoy, who was diagnosed with PTSD after returning to Chicago Heights from Iraq in April 2004. It took McCoy five months to find a part-time job as a package handler at United Parcel Service, at a pay rate of $8.50 an hour and without benefits.
Illinois is last in the country when it comes to getting jobs for veterans, according to the U.S. Labor Department a ranking that state employment officials dispute.
More, Mr. Albert Collins, Recruiting Consultant at HireVeterans.com reports that employers do want to reach out but are not always sure what they are reaching out for. “I spend lots of time educating employers on the value of hiring veterans. It’s not that they don’t want to hire, it is they just don’t all understand the benefits. Once they realize that our veterans are quality hires, they do reach out and reach out with great energy. We need to make the connections”.
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