Veterans Unemployment Still High

For two years, Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have experienced unemployment numbers much higher than the national average for nonveterans, ages 18-24. Currently, the trend is over 20 percent while the national average for nonveterans is 17 percent.

Concerns over the impacts of service, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and extended tours for Reserve and Guard troops, are cited as possible causes for the high numbers. For that reason, many veterans no longer include periods of military service on their resumes. They take four years or more of valuable experience and throw it into the trash.

Despite current aid programs geared to help the problem, advocates claim more can be done to counter the negative connotations. To them, the answer lies within the further development of awareness programs for employers. In addition, they claim more effort by the military should be placed on developing licensing and skills that translate into the civilian workplace more easily.

Conservative estimates claim it costs corporations between $3,000 to $25,000 per new hire. It makes sense that employers would be concerned about hidden problems like PTSD or future deployments. Perhaps the government could do more by way of increased tax incentives for hiring these veterans beyond what is currently in place.

Meanwhile, the government has pushed for more veterans to take advantage of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which paid out over $7 billion by the end of last year. However, with the current stigma veterans have due to their service experiences, graduating veterans may still have problems when entering the civilian labor market. So long as the government wants war, it will continue to make veterans with disorders and disabilities, both visible and invisible. This places the brave men and women who have sacrificed so much at a disadvantage: include your military service knowing it could hurt you or leave it off your resume and have a 4-year unexplainable void. Regardless, it is a problem our country can and should do more to address.

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6 Comments

  1. Dear Sir,
    I am discharged from Army wef Nov 1994 due to Medical Category CEE (P) and I submit my unwillingness. But I am not getting any pension (disability) and I dont know the procedure for approach further. Kindly help me in this regard.

    Thanks and Regards

    Karunakaran

  2. Coupling veterans unemployment, homelessness, and early death with PTSD or other problems, such as drug addiction, alcoholism, or laziness has been a propaganda device used by the media to justify the massive discrimination against servicemen and veterans since the Vietnam War. If it can be drilled into the public that veterans are dangerous, that gives justification to employers who do not want to hire them. If we look over cases of mass murder by governments against segments of the population they control, such actions are always coupled with vilification of the targets of extermination. Stalin labelled Ukrainian farmers and “kulaks” before systematically starving 7 million of them to death. Mao called farmers who resisted collectivization “deviationists to the right” before starving about 60 million of them during the “great leap forward.” Jews were denounced in Hitler’s Wochenschau as a prelude to the Holocaust. U.S. politicians are afraid of how much money veterans’ benefits will cost when veterans reach old age, so the final solution to that problem is to kill off the veterans. The first step is to label them as sick, substance abusers, and lazy bums and then systematically deny them employment until they become destitute, homeless, and die on the streets. This has already happened to the veterans of the Vietnam War, and the government is continuing the process as the veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan. I know because since returning from Vietnam in 1968, I have been denied all employment opportunity in the United States, and the government as spent between 1 and 2 million dollars in legal fees fighting my employment discrimination lawsuits.

  3. I am also 100% rated, and have asked the same question. I still don’t know the right answer, or if there is one, but it I’m assuming that it all depends on how you’re disabled. I have a good friend that was also at 100%, with some being physical (not loss of limb or anything, just injuries) and I would say at least half for mental, and once he moved to a different area and found full time employment the VA dropped his rating to 80%. I’m not saying it was necessarily because he started working full time, they’re may have been other factors involved i’m not sure, but it probably didn’t help any. Either way, I think it’s safe to say that if you are or at one point were 100% that you’ll most likely receive at least some rating here on out. But with the way the economy has been and looks like in the near future, it may be a risky chance to take not knowing how long that possible employment may last….good luck!

  4. @ doulos….
    I am also 100% rated, and have asked the same question. I still don’t know the right answer, or if there is one, but it I’m assuming that it all depends on how you’re disabled. I have a good friend that was also at 100%, with some being physical (not loss of limb or anything, just injuries) and I would say at least half for mental, and once he moved to a different area and found full time employment the VA dropped his rating to 80%. I’m not saying it was necessarily because he started working full time, they’re may have been other factors involved i’m not sure, but it probably didn’t help any. Either way, I think it’s safe to say that if you are or at one point were 100% that you’ll most likely receive at least some rating here on out. But with the way the economy has been and looks like in the near future, it may be a risky chance to take not knowing how long that possible employment may last….good luck!

  5. 100% disabled…and work…unless you are being employed as a throw rug, I don’t see what you would be doing, and if you are getting paid, then why would you need disability…Sounds like a welfare mom stripping

  6. I am a 100% disabled service-connected veteran and was medically retired. I receive an amount every month tax-free. I am looking for work as a government civilian (GS). If I start working, will that effect my VA pay?

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