Young men and women who serve in the military overcome many challenges and hardships while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. When they come home, they encounter a different enemy: the job market.
According to the latest figures from the U.S. Labor Department”™s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the April unemployment rate for young veterans ”“ those who served on active duty since the 2001 terror attacks ”“ stood at 10.9 percent. The problem is particularly acute for young male veterans. Their unemployment rate was 11.7 percent.
One challenge these young veterans face is how to explain their skills to civilian employers who are unfamiliar with military occupations ”“ when human resources managers are already swamped with applicants with plenty of civilian work experiences.
“There just aren”™t enough resources out there that help civilian employers understand what military occupational specialties are and how they translate,” said Carleen Levy, HR manager at Candela Systems Corp. in Somers.
Candela Systems is one of the area”™s businesses that are actively involved in raising awareness of veteran employment issues. The lighting installation company has about 40 employees and six of them are military veterans.
“We try to participate whenever veterans associations are having job fairs,” Levy said. Her company has also partnered with the armed forces employment association that compiles a list of companies that are looking to hire veterans.
“Sometimes it”™s just hard for veterans to actually be back in the civilian life, so they are not aggressively going out and looking for jobs immediately after returning home,” she said.
“A tour of duty should not be seen as a hindrance to looking for work. Veterans need to understand that there are employers out there that recognize the sacrifices that they made and are looking to embrace them and welcome them back home for doing all the things that they have done.”
More than 300 young military veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are officially listed as out of work in Westchester and Rockland counties, according to the office of U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
Speaking the language
Rob Shovlin, CEO of Yonkers-based Aureon Biosciences Inc., is another local business leader who”™s been involved in raising awareness of local veteran employment issues.
“The big challenge is that it is a very competitive marketplace today. That means lots of people with specific experience for a particular job are competing with these returning vets for the same position and the employer is likely to select the person with more direct experience,” Shovlin said.
“Unfortunately, many civilian employers and HR personnel don”™t fully appreciate the attributes and skill sets that veterans, especially ones returning from combat, can bring to their workforce, said Shovlin, who was a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps in the early 1990s. “Veterans need to be able to translate their experiences into a language that civilians can understand. Oftentimes during interviews, veterans will use terminology or military jargon that is unfamiliar to a civilian and therefore the employer is less likely to comprehend the significance of what the veteran is trying to convey.”
OJ Yizer, manager at Westchester/Putnam Workforce Investment Board”™s One-Stop Employment Center in White Plains, added that most centers have dedicated staff members who work strictly with veterans and spouses of veterans to help connect them to employment. Not all young veterans return to the workforce right away. Some may need additional time to acclimate back to civilian life or even deal with emotional traumas if they were on the front line. Others may seek job training or go back to school for higher education.
Back to school
And some young veterans are going back to school as a way to get more education and avoid today”™s tough job market. One advantage for veterans is that thanks to the post-9/11 GI Bill, much of their educational expenses will be picked up by the government.
Michael Suazo is a 28-year-old veteran who got a college degree in May in corporate and homeland security from Dobbs Ferry-based Mercy College.
“I have my bachelor”™s degree now in addition to the experience and skills I have from my military service. I am getting job interviews much easier now. So it”™s definitely a step forward,” he said. “Luckily because I am a veteran, the Montgomery GI Bill paid my tuition.”
Mercy College currently has more than 250 enrolled students who are military veterans.
Andrew Person, the college’s director of veterans’ affairs, said skills that veterans provide range from information technology to logistics for managing multibillion-dollar organizations. “For example, the people on the flight deck of the USS George Washington manage operations of a multibillion-dollar aircraft carrier. But if they can”™t find a job back in the states, there is something wrong with that picture.”
Many young veterans face a “double-whammy” when looking for work because they lack civilian work experiences and college degrees. A typical military veteran enlists at the age 19 after high school and leaves the service in his or her mid- to late-20s.
“One solution is to go back to school and get a college degree for free, paid for by your own benefit that you earned,” Person said. “My piece of advice is to know your benefits ”“ education benefits, health care benefits. That”™s because there is a lot of support available for veterans.”
I am a disabled veteran a woman and have had a horrible time even finding anything that is slightly resembling any type of work, that cam be at least 35 hours or more. I am not young, and as a female I have had a horrific discrimination even from so called “veterans homes” that recently was hiring for a night shift CQ that’s someone to watch all night for patients to wake up and try to hurt themselves. How they got “these people” in with vets I’ll never know! I was originally welcomed at the first interview and then later was not given the time of day and none of my references were called.
Later after the appropriate time I called with no avail finally I was told someone else was hired and they weren’t even a VETERAN and here am I a DISABLED VETERAN who they were trying to find to fill their Federal Requirement and they gave it to one of their PALS! I am in severe need of Legit employment! These “private” phoney veteran places of “healing” are nothing but a fancy Snake Oil Salesman!!! I am licensed in New york State for security. Let’s GIVE A WOMAN VET A HELPING HAND OK?