8/8/2019 Veterans of recent wars confront grim employment landscape

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 Veterans of recent wars confront grimemployment landscape

By Michael A. Fletcher Washington Post Staff Writer

 Thursday, December 30, 2010; 12:25 AM

IN HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. During the seven months that he was stationed in Iraq, Joe Janssenserved as an assaultman, a job that involved manning the turret gun in a Humvee and using 

shoulder-fired rockets and other explosives to support his fellow Marines.

 Those skills were invaluable in war. But they are of little use now that he is back home inHauppauge, N.Y., a Long Island hamlet. He has applied for job after job since leaving activeduty well over a year ago, but his efforts have proved futile.

 The Marine reservist used his veterans benefits to finish his bachelor's degree in criminal justice.Now he is scouring for a job in law enforcement while he waits for his name to rise to the top of the New York state police hiring list - which is unlikely to be anytime soon, given the state'ssevere budget problems.

"I have a passion to be a cop," said Janssen, 23, a fitness buff who dabbles in mixed martial arts."But no one is hiring."

 Janssen's experience is common among the 2 million veterans of the long-running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As they return home to the worst labor market in generations, the veterans

 who are publicly venerated for their patriotism and service are also having a harder time thanmost finding work, federal data show.

 While their nonmilitary contemporaries were launching careers during the nearly 10 years thenation has been at war, troops were repeatedly deployed to desolate war zones. And on theirreturn to civilian life, these veterans are forced to find their way in a bleak economy where the

skills they learned at war have little value.

Some experts say the grim employment landscape confronting veterans challenges the veracity of one of the central recruiting promises of the nation's all-volunteer force: that serving in themilitary will make them more marketable in civilian life.

"That [promise] works great in peacetime," said Lawrence J. Korb, an assistant secretary of defense for manpower under President Ronald Reagan who is now a senior fellow at the Centerfor American Progress. "But that does not work too well in war. . . . If you are in there four yearsand deployed twice, what kind of skills have you learned other than counterinsurgency?"

 The unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans was 10 percent in November,compared with 9.1 percent for non-veterans, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Unemployment rates for combat veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been higherthan the overall rate since at least 2005, according to the bureau.

 Top military officials stand by their promise, even as they express concern about theunemployment rate of veterans. They emphasize that veterans are driven by patriotism and have

access to an array of programs to help them find work, including preferences for governmentjobs, guaranteed interviews with large employers, and tuition reimbursement and stipends forcollege.

"I continue to be very worried about the unemployment rate among our vets. They and theirfamilies have sacrificed an awful lot, and all they want in return is a chance to get back to theirlives and to their dreams," said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

 The experiences of four Iraq veterans, all attached to the same Marine reserve unit in New York,are emblematic: One is gainfully employed; he said he thinks he was hired because he is a

 veteran. Another has managed to get part-time work after a long and difficult search. A third is

in school, with the help of government veterans benefits. And Janssen continues to look for work, a process that has nourished a desire to return to active duty.

"I'm hoping to get deployed," Janssen said. "Besides wanting to go to Afghanistan, I could usethe money."

Calvin Artis, 22, joined the MarineCorps in March 2006, when he was17. He said he was driven by a desireto serve his country and expand hiscareer options.

"It was either that or get a job atMcDonald's or Home Depot, or goback to live with my mom," said

 Artis, who before enlisting earned hisgeneral equivalency diploma in theNational Guards' Youth ChallengeProgram, which works with high- risk youths in a quasi-military structure.But Artis says his civilian job optionsare little improved.

 Three years ago, he was patrolling thestreets of Fallujah, Iraq, from behinda machine gun mounted atop aHumvee. Later, he was stationed

aboard a ship that cruised the Arabian and Mediterranean seas as part of a "911" force that couldbe quickly deployed to back up troops on the ground.

Now, Artis is bunking with his brother's family in southern New Jersey as he tries to sort out hisfuture. He has twice taken the New York City police exam, but he remains far down the hiring list. Meanwhile, he has applied for dozens of other jobs, at Toys 'R' Us, Radio Shack, Wal-Mart,

McDonald's and several security firms - all carefully cataloged on a spreadsheet he keeps on hislaptop - but few employers responded with as much as a phone call.

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"Everybody says, 'We support the troops,' " Artis said. "But a lot of people turn away when it istime to return the favor."

In late September, he landed a part-time job at the deli counter of Quick Chek, a sunny 

convenience store attached to a gas station in Manchester, N.J. The job pays $7.50 an hour, and Artis got it only after pestering the manager with phone calls "for the better part of a week."

 Artis said he is considering going to school and plans to return to active duty if the economy does not improve. "Knowing what I know now, I would have stayed in," he said. "At least thereare job security and benefits when you are in."

 Analysts offer several reasons why newly returned combat troops often struggle to find work.For one, the types of skills that troops hone during war - teamwork, mission focus, the ability tooperate under extreme pressure - are often misunderstood or undervalued by employers.

In addition, more than one in five recent combat veterans claim service-related disabilities,including post-traumatic stress disorder. That has left veterans burdened with a complicatedlegacy: Although the public admires their service, it also sees combat veterans as especially proneto mental illness, substance abuse and violence.

Some analysts say that stigma is one reason that veterans often earn less than comparable workers - a gap that lingers long after they leave active duty .

If people perceive many combat veterans to be troubled, they also express a willingness to work  with or befriend them, said Meredith A. Kelykamp, a University of Maryland sociologist, whohas done extensive research on public attitudes toward veterans.

"A lot of people when they look at Afghanistan and Iraq vets, the first thing they think ispost-traumatic stress," said Janssen, adding that he suffers no fallout from his time in Iraq. "Is henormal? Can he sleep at night? Is he reliable? I think that's what employers think."

 Artis ruefully recalled that during one job interview, the hiring manager turned to a colleagueand, pointing at Artis, said: "Guess what he used to do? He used to shoot people."

"I just thought to myself, 'Really?' " Artis said, shaking his head.

In recent years, the federal government has bolstered aid for veterans seeking to further their

education. The post-Sept. 11, 2001, GI Bill provides combat veterans more assistance withcollege tuition, as well as stipends for books and living expenses.

Meanwhile, the Defense, Veterans Affairs and Labor departments offer skills training,assessment and other services to help veterans get jobs. Last year, President Obama signed anexecutive order establishing offices in federal agencies responsible for identifying jobopportunities for veterans.

Some analysts say the educational and other benefits available to veterans - including immediateunemployment insurance - are also likely contributors to their high joblessness rates.

"It could be they are going to college. And it could be that they are accessing certain benefits thatare available to them," said Beth Asch, a senior economist at the Rand Corp. "They could be

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