2006 VFW Magazine - Veterans of Foreign Wars

issuesupfront
Succeeding in the Civilian Job Market
Finding jobs for discharged vets and protecting reservist re-employment rights is of utmost importance during wartime.
by Shannon Hanson
6 • WWW.VFW.ORG • © 2006 VFW Magazine
Among the multitude of issues
faced by veterans from Iraq and
Afghanistan upon their return
home is the pressing problem of
employment. Discharged vets have to
find ways to transfer their military job
skills into the civilian world; reservists
and National Guardsmen can face difficulties
returning to their civilian jobs.
Legislation has been passed and programs
created to help these vets. But
according to the Department of Labor,
the current unemployment rate among
young veterans (20-24) is 15.8%, twice
the rate of non-veterans the same age.
Senate VA Committee Chairman
Larry Craig (R-Idaho) said, “This trend
of rising unemployment suggests to me
that we, as a nation, must do more to
help these young veterans succeed in
the civilian job market.”
The government’s newest program,
VA initiative Fulfilling the Commitment—Coming
Home to Work, aims to
make it easier for recent vets to access
existing job-search resources, and to
encourage employers to look at veterans
as a desirable employee base. VA
Secretary Jim Nicholson also hopes to
create a job database and a network of
private-sector companies interested in
veteran-employees.
Upon its creation by the Jobs for
Veterans Act (P.L. 107-288), the president’s
National Hire Veterans Committee
developed the program Hire Vets
First (www.hirevetsfirst.gov). This Internet
resource includes an area for
employers, with reasons to hire vets,
skills translators and testimonials; and
an area for vets, to search for jobs and get
resumé assistance and transition advice.
The Transition Assistance Program
(TAP), begun in 1990, is another tool
available to vets that a June 2005 Government
Accountability Office report recommended
making mandatory. It offers
three-day workshops at select military
installations that provide information on
job searches, career decision-making, job
market conditions, resumés and cover
letters, interviewing skills and current
veterans benefits.
Cody Green attended a TAP workshop
in Norfolk, Va., after leaving the
Navy in December 2004. “A lot of people
told me I would have a hard time
finding a job after I got out,” he said.
Employment Stats 2004
• 43,262 vets hired by federal
agencies
• 19% of federal agency new hires
were vets
• 454,000 vets in federal
workforce (25%)
• 9.4% of private sector workforce
were vets
• 87,390 disabled vets in federal
workforce (up 11% from
previous year)
• 15.8% unemployment rate for
young vets (age 20-24)
Source: Department of Labor and Office
of Personnel Management
“But I was under the impression, being
a veteran at a time of war, I would be
able to find a job pretty quickly.” Green
got a job in August 2005.
VFW also works directly with a job
service provider. VetJobs.com (www.vetjobs.com)
is a full-service job- and
resumé-posting Web site.
Special programs for wounded or
disabled vets also are available. Disabled
TAP workshops include the regular
three-day workshop plus individual
instruction addressing the special needs
of service-connected disabled vets.
In 2005, the Labor and Defense
departments launched the Recovery
and Employment Assistance Lifelines
(REALifelines) initiative, a personalized
assistance network that trains seriously
wounded GIs unable to return to active
duty for a civilian career. Representatives
are stationed at Walter Reed Army
Medical Center, Bethesda National Naval
Medical Center, Ft. Lewis, Wash., and Ft.
Sam Houston in San Antonio.
When it comes to government jobs,
veterans preference is in place to grant
extra points on civil service exams. In
January, the Office of Personnel Management
announced the inclusion of
Afghanistan and Iraq Campaign Medal
recipients’ entitlement to preference in
federal hiring.
But the key to veterans employment
could be in the private sector. According
to Wesley Poriotis of the Center for
Military and Private Sector Initiatives,
“To find jobs in the private sector, you
need to engage persons with private-sector
experience to fund these jobs and
then connect veterans to those jobs.”
Programs that accomplish this are sure
to come down the pike soon.
USERRA Protects Vets
Members of the Reserves and National
Guard face their own unique challenges
when they return home from war. The
Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment
Rights Act (USERRA) outlines
the rights and responsibilities of
returning Reserve and Guard members,
and their employers. New rules clarifying
USERRA went into effect Jan. 18, the
first explanation of the act since the law
was enacted in 1994. A one-page poster
released in December and available on
the Web site www.dol.gov/vets outlines
the new regulations.