USA Today ran a cover story a couple of days ago noting that among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan aged over 18, the US unmployment rate is now 11.2%. The corresponding rate among non-veterans? Only 8.8%.
Among the youngest veterans, those aged between 20 and 24, the picture is worse, with unemployment at 15% in February this year (compared to 13.8% for non-veterans). The total number of unemployed Iraq and Afghanistan vets is about 170,000 – the same as the number of people currently deployed to th0se two wars.
A spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars points out that there’s a social network analysis dimension to all this: “If you served in the military, you’re disconnected from the civilian workforce, you don’t have contacts that a civilian person has”. But here’s the really depressing part:
Robert Pearson, 23, of Minneapolis, is a former paratrooper who served in Afghanistan. He says it’s hard to find work as a human resources manager in order to use the skills he learned managing soldiers as a combat team leader. He says he was shocked when a job-placement worker told him that some employers consider a military record almost like having “a felony.”
“People just frown upon us nowadays, thinking we’re all flying-off-the-handle crazy guys,” says Pearson, who has a bachelor’s degree in business management. “They don’t even give us a chance.”
