National Guard soldiers and airmen face unemployment crisis

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-national-guard-employment-20121124,0,3917350.story



1st Lt. Ernest Rodriguez, shown with his daughter in October, signed up for another year in Afghanistan because he needs the money and knows that returning National Guard troops face high unemployment.


National Guard soldiers and airmen face unemployment crisis
By Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times
November 23, 2012, 3:48 p.m.

For 1st Lt. Ernest Rodriguez, weekly chats with his young daughter via phone or Skype are the highlight of duty in Afghanistan.

The father from Sacramento desperately wants to come home to 7-year-old Samantha. But instead, he has signed up for another year in the war zone. He needs the money and he knows that returning National Guard troops face high unemployment.

More than half of those in his unit had no work when they got back to California in August. Across the country, an estimated 20% of returning National Guard soldiers and airmen are without jobs, former National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Craig R. McKinley told Congress earlier this year. That is twice the rate for all military veterans who have served since September 2001.

The Obama administration has helped reduce the unemployment rate for all recent veterans, from 15% nearly two years ago to 10% last month, by developing online tools to help returning troops find jobs, working with employers to increase recruitment and retention, and signing into law tax credits for hiring veterans.