Help Wanted: Veteran Unemployment in America

By Brit­tany Barry

The Prob­lem

Unem­ploy­ment has been a con­stant topic of dis­cus­sion in the polit­i­cal sphere, with both pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates dis­cussing how they will fix the prob­lem if given a chance. Indi­vid­u­als in dif­fer­ing sec­tors of the civil­ian work­force are search­ing for new employ­ment, and among these job seek­ers are vet­er­ans. Accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, in August 2012 the over­all vet­eran unem­ploy­ment rate was 6.6 per­cent. This equates to 720,000 vet­er­ans, a decrease of 32,000 from July. The mil­i­tary spouse unem­ploy­ment rate, which is at 28 per­cent, is even more shock­ing. How­ever, the great­est con­cern is for vet­er­ans in the 18 to 24 year-old age group, where the unem­ploy­ment rate is 19.9 per­cent, approx­i­mately 45,000 vet­er­ans. Com­pared to the 15.6 per­cent unem­ploy­ment rate for the civil­ian coun­ter­part, vet­er­ans still are placed in a predica­ment as they tran­si­tion from the mil­i­tary to civil­ian workforce.

            Many vet­er­ans face obsta­cles that their civil­ian coun­ter­parts do not have to over­come. One rea­son younger vet­er­ans remain unem­ployed is largely due to these indi­vid­u­als belong­ing to National Guard and Reserve units. These troops could be deployed for six months to more than a year, leav­ing com­pa­nies with­out an employee and often hav­ing to rely on a tem­po­rary worker. Many employ­ers would rather hire some­one who can com­mit long term to their com­pany and there­fore pur­pose­fully do not hire can­di­dates who are con­nected to the National Guard or Reserve.

            Another obsta­cle is the stigma asso­ci­ated with post-traumatic stress dis­or­der. While talk­ing about this con­di­tion allows vet­er­ans and ser­vice mem­bers to seek help, the civil­ian work­force con­tin­ues to view PTSD as an unwanted work­place risk. Believ­ing all vet­er­ans are tick­ing time bombs and unsta­ble, employ­ers shy away from hir­ing them. While PTSD is a legit­i­mate con­di­tion that many vet­er­ans deal with on a daily basis, it nor­mally does not hin­der a veteran’s work per­for­mance or com­mit­ment to accom­plish­ing goals within a com­pany. How­ever, employ­ers remain in the dark about the truth behind PTSD, rely­ing only on film and media depic­tions, and there­fore turn away qual­i­fied vet­eran candidates.

A third obsta­cle that is cited by employ­ers as a rea­son why vet­er­ans are not hired is the inabil­ity of appli­cants to trans­late mil­i­tary skills into terms civil­ian employ­ers can under­stand. Ser­vice mem­bers are accus­tomed to super­vi­sors under­stand­ing mil­i­tary acronyms and deduct­ing what skills and qual­i­fi­ca­tions are reflected with rank pro­mo­tions and awards. How­ever, employ­ers and com­pa­nies in cor­po­rate Amer­ica are at a loss when words like “MOS” and “MRAP” appear on a resume. Break­ing down spe­cific require­ments for a pro­mo­tion, such as list­ing “the abil­ity to plan and coor­di­nate train­ing,” or “respon­si­bil­ity for men­tor­ing other ser­vice mem­bers,” will res­onate more with a com­pany than just writ­ing “pro­moted to SSgt. in Decem­ber 2008.” Employ­ers have a lim­ited knowl­edge of mil­i­tary train­ing, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, pro­mo­tions, and deploy­ment mis­sions, and vet­er­ans must tai­lor their resumes accord­ingly if they wish to be hired.

“It was a very dif­fi­cult tran­si­tion to see what skills I had in the mil­i­tary and see how they would apply in the civil­ian world,” said Baskin-Robbins Senior Vice Pres­i­dent and Brand Offi­cer Bill Mitchell, who served in the Army for eight years as a field artillery offi­cer. “When I talk to vet­er­ans, they under­es­ti­mate their skills in plan­ning and their skills in train­ing, which are very applic­a­ble to cor­po­rate America.”

            Employ­ers are search­ing for valu­able qual­i­ties that vet­er­ans innately posses, yet are not pro­mot­ing dur­ing the inter­view process. Lead­er­ship, coor­di­nat­ing mis­sions and troop move­ments, plan­ning, orga­niz­ing, and com­mit­ment to the mis­sion are all skills that a vet­eran should be con­vey­ing to an employer by relay­ing their expe­ri­ences in the mil­i­tary. Vet­er­ans often do not pro­mote them­selves, being accus­tomed to adver­tis­ing the group and mis­sion above one’s self. How­ever, while in an inter­view the vet­eran must stand out from other can­di­dates and list­ing exper­tise gained while in the mil­i­tary, one of the most diverse and largest orga­ni­za­tions in the coun­try, can accom­plish this.

Fran­chis­ing Opportunities

            For vet­er­ans there are three main paths to gen­er­at­ing income out­side of the mil­i­tary: open­ing a fran­chise, receive addi­tional train­ing or edu­ca­tion, or direct employ­ment. Fran­chises appeal to vet­er­ans because they allow the indi­vid­ual to be inde­pen­dent and accom­plish goals that are depen­dent on work per­for­mance and deter­mi­na­tion, two qual­i­ties that are not for­eign to veterans.

            A nation­ally rec­og­nized com­pany and iconic brand, Baskin-Robbins has taken the ini­tia­tive to tar­get vet­er­ans for unique fran­chise oppor­tu­ni­ties.  Tra­di­tion­ally, Baskin-Robbins has required indi­vid­u­als to pay $25,000 upfront to begin a fran­chise. How­ever, rec­og­niz­ing that this finan­cial com­mit­ment presents a chal­lenge and often dis­cour­ages vet­er­ans from join­ing the Baskin-Robbins team, the com­pany has amor­tized this fee over a period of 10 years. Vet­er­ans will only need to meet the company’s qual­i­fi­ca­tions and ini­tially raise $2,500 to begin their fran­chise. While many vet­er­ans have no expe­ri­ence in the food indus­try busi­ness, unless they had pre­vi­ously worked at an installation’s food facil­i­ties, Mitchell asks vet­er­ans to take another look at Baskin-Robbins.

            “[Vet­er­ans] might not under­stand Baskin-Robbins or nec­es­sar­ily the food aspect…but the fact that lead­er­ship is the most com­mon ingre­di­ent, we believe we can teach the rest,” said Mitchell. “We can teach the ice cream part; if they bring integrity, knowl­edge, and lead­er­ship to the table, then we will bridge those gaps for vet­er­ans today.”

            In addi­tion to Baskin-Robbins, Matco Tools is offer­ing spe­cial fran­chis­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to the vet­eran com­mu­nity, hop­ing to add more vet­er­ans to their team. Matco Tools has increased their mil­i­tary incen­tive from $5,000 to $10,000 in 2012. This incen­tive is applied to ini­tial start up costs, allow­ing the vet­eran an eas­ier finan­cial transition.

“The incen­tive is huge,” said Adam Blair, a Marine Corps sniper and Pur­ple Heart recip­i­ent. “That’s not a for­give­ness of fran­chise fees or roy­al­ties because Matco does not charge those. It is basi­cally free prod­ucts that they give you and that you can sell and turn into real dollars.”

Blair took advan­tage of Matco Tools’ offer and began his own fran­chise in 2008. In 2011, he was pro­moted to a field sales rep­re­sen­ta­tive and his younger brother, Steven Blair, took over his route as a new Matco Tools fran­chise owner. Matco Tools trains new vet­eran fran­chise own­ers for two weeks, allow­ing the indi­vid­ual to tour the route with an expe­ri­enced Matco Tools representative.

Addi­tional Training

            While numer­ous resources are avail­able to vet­er­ans, the Depart­ment of Labor’s Vet­er­ans’ Employ­ment and Train­ing Ser­vice pro­vided train­ing and employ­ment ser­vices to more than 1.5 mil­lion vet­er­ans in 2011. Com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing aid to tran­si­tion­ing ser­vice mem­bers, vet­er­ans, and their fam­i­lies, VETS attempts to bridge the gap between the mil­i­tary and civil­ian sec­tors. Through their new P3 cam­paign, VETS pre­pares ser­vice mem­bers for civil­ian employ­ment, pro­vides resources to vet­er­ans and fam­i­lies, and pro­tects the legal rights of mil­i­tary indi­vid­u­als through uphold­ing the Uni­formed Ser­vices Employ­ment and Reem­ploy­ment Rights Act.

One of the tools VETS pro­motes among the mil­i­tary com­mu­nity is the Gold Card Ini­tia­tive. This pro­gram pro­vides post-9/11 era vet­er­ans with elec­tronic Gold Cards that guar­an­tee access to six months of train­ing and coun­sel­ing at all One-Stop Career Cen­ters. Resources include career guid­ance, refer­ral to employ­ers or train­ing pro­grams, monthly follow-ups by a case man­ager, and career guidance.

“All vet­er­ans cur­rently receive pri­or­ity of access to One-Stop ser­vices,” said Deputy Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of VETS Ismael Ortiz Jr. “But, the guar­an­tee of ser­vice to Gold Card hold­ers enhance their access to per­son­al­ized career guid­ance and coun­sel­ing to assist in mak­ing train­ing and career decisions.”

VETS esti­mates that there are cur­rently 205,000 post-9/11 era vet­er­ans who would imme­di­ately be eli­gi­ble to par­tic­i­pate in the Gold Card Ini­tia­tive. Addi­tion­ally, the DOL Employ­ment Work­shop has been redesigned to be more engag­ing and rel­e­vant to the ser­vice mem­ber, who is fac­ing unique chal­lenges when tran­si­tion­ing to a career in cor­po­rate Amer­ica. Armed with a new cur­ricu­lum, deliv­ery meth­ods, and stu­dent hand­out mate­ri­als, the Employ­ment Work­shops now include infor­ma­tion and tools to help ser­vice mem­bers trans­late their mil­i­tary skills on a resume and meet civil­ian licens­ing and cre­den­tial­ing require­ments. With more than 4,200 Employ­ment Work­shops in 2011, DOL hopes to reach even more ser­vice mem­bers in 2012.

On a smaller scale, Vet­er­ans Green Jobs is com­mit­ted to con­nect­ing vet­er­ans with employ­ers and train­ing pro­grams. They host an employ­ment pro­gram where career coun­selors con­nect vet­er­ans with employ­ers who have jobs in the green sec­tor. This year alone, Vet­er­ans Green Jobs has placed 209 indi­vid­u­als in jobs: 157 in sea­sonal oppor­tu­ni­ties and 52 in per­ma­nent posi­tions. Sea­sonal oppor­tu­ni­ties are used as a train­ing mech­a­nism where vet­er­ans gain hands-on expe­ri­ence in out­door con­ser­va­tion or wild­land fire­fight­ing pro­grams, and even­tu­ally use this train­ing to secure a full-time posi­tion. Cur­rently, the renew­able energy mar­ket has 8.5 mil­lion U.S. jobs and it is esti­mated that by 2030, there will be 30 mil­lion jobs in this sector.

“I think green energy just rep­re­sents another mis­sion and another way for vet­er­ans to serve their coun­try,” said Senior Direc­tor of Vet­er­ans Pro­grams John Toth, an Army infantry offi­cer with more than 21 years of expe­ri­ence. Vet­er­ans Green Jobs is cur­rently part­nered with five con­ser­va­tion corps in the west and south­west, allow­ing them to pro­vide vet­er­ans with an array of opportunities.

Direct Employ­ment

            In the past year, the U.S. Cham­ber of Com­merce has encour­aged cor­po­ra­tions and employ­ers to hire vet­er­ans and mil­i­tary spouses through their Hir­ing Our Heroes cam­paign. Host­ing 209 job fairs, the Hir­ing Our Heroes pro­gram has pro­cured com­mit­ments from small busi­ness to hire 500,000 vet­er­ans and mil­i­tary spouses over the next three years. Toy­ota is one of these com­pa­nies and remains com­mit­ted to help­ing vet­er­ans tran­si­tion to the civil­ian work­force. By part­ner­ing with Hir­ing Our Heroes and Medal of Honor Recip­i­ent Sgt. Dakota Meyer, Toy­ota has pro­moted the Per­sonal Brand­ing Ini­tia­tive to help vet­er­ans bet­ter mar­ket them­selves to employers.

            “The Per­sonal Brand­ing Ini­tia­tive is an impor­tant step for­ward,” said Don Esmond, Senior Advi­sor, Toy­ota Motor Sales, Inc. and Marine vet­eran. “Toy­ota is hon­ored to be part­ner­ing with Sgt. Dakota Meyer and Hir­ing Our Heroes and we pledge our full sup­port to the program.”

Much like Toy­ota, Humana is vow­ing their sup­port to pro­vide employ­ment and busi­ness devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties to vet­er­ans and their fam­ily mem­bers. Humana remains com­mit­ted to hir­ing 1,000 vet­er­ans or mil­i­tary spouses by the end of 2013, and has cur­rently hired 452 indi­vid­u­als in this cat­e­gory. Humana has also cre­ated a mil­i­tary cen­tric por­tal where vet­er­ans can dis­cover more about the com­pany, learn about career oppor­tu­ni­ties at Humana, and fill out an employ­ment application.

            Cater­pil­lar has also cre­ated a unique pro­gram tai­lored to vet­er­ans: the Armed Forces Sup­port Net­work. Filled with vet­er­ans who have made a career at Cater­pil­lar, new employ­ees can choose to be men­tored by another vet­eran, allow­ing them to have a smoother tran­si­tion into the com­pany from the mil­i­tary and under­stand the goals and expec­ta­tions of Cater­pil­lar. The Armed Forces Sup­port Net­work also helps bridge the gap in com­mu­ni­ca­tion between the employee, super­vi­sor, and fam­ily when the indi­vid­ual is deployed with a National Guard or Reserve unit. With over 130,000 employ­ees in more than 180 coun­tries, Cater­pil­lar offers a vari­ety of career opportunities.

            “Vet­er­ans are some­one that you can count on to show up and do the job,” said Ryan Hub­bard, Pres­i­dent of Caterpillar’s Armed Forces Sup­port Net­work and life mem­ber of Illi­nois AMVETS Post 234. “Just like the mil­i­tary has a defined set of val­ues, Cater­pil­lar has a set of val­ues: integrity, excel­lence, team­work, and commitment.”

AMVETS Gets Involved

            Com­mit­ted to help­ing vet­er­ans, AMVETS has recently part­nered with Recruit­Mil­i­tary to pro­vide vet­er­ans, active-duty mil­i­tary mem­bers and their fam­i­lies with career oppor­tu­ni­ties through hir­ing events, web­sites, job-search plat­forms, and print and elec­tronic media. AMVETS now offers a vir­tual career cen­ter at www.amvets.org, which includes a job search, free vet­eran access to the Recruit­Mil­i­tary resume-writing guide, and employer and job-seeker links. Help­ing vet­er­ans for 15 years, Recruit­Mil­i­tary has hosted 60 career fairs annu­ally, with 440 vet­er­ans and almost 50 com­pa­nies at each event. While the prob­lem of vet­eran unem­ploy­ment con­tin­ues to exist, AMVETS con­tin­ues to fight for vet­er­ans to receive oppor­tu­ni­ties in the civil­ian workforce.