Recent Veterans Still Struggle To Find Work

[jtuck004]

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are mostly over. But many recent veterans now face a new challenge: getting a civilian job.

The unemployment rate for veterans — in this case, defined as anyone who served on active duty in the armed forces — was 4.5 percent in October, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. That was better than for the population as a whole. But for recent veterans — those who have served since Sept. 11, 2001 — the story was significantly different: Their unemployment rate was 7.2 percent in October. That’s down from 10 percent a year ago, but it’s still significantly higher than the 5.5 percent rate for the overall U.S. population. (Note: The government doesn’t provide seasonally adjusted data on veterans, so I’m comparing their unemployment rate to the equivalent, unadjusted rate for the population. The better-known seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 5.8 percent.)
...
The high unemployment rate among veterans might seem surprising given the military’s emphasis on discipline, leadership and problem solving, all skills companies say they value in employees. And indeed, many major civilian employers have active programs aimed at hiring vets. But many veterans report struggling to translate their military experience for civilian recruiters. A separate report from the Census Bureau on Monday showed that many veterans end up in jobs closely related to their military service, such as law enforcement, private security and maintenance work.

There are glimmers of good news, however. If they do have jobs, recent veterans are more likely to be employed full time. And the Census Bureau report shows that many recent veterans are employed in science, engineering, technology and other relatively well-paying fields.

Here.

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Lives on the line so others can profit.

They wind up in police work because there are so few alternatives, and bring what they were trained to do - hate and kill - to the civilian population.

Maybe this is why most police are only there to serve and protect themselves now.

[BP2]

1. Maybe they can be Drone pilots for the commander-in-chief. eom