David McAfee splits his time between fulfilling his prescribed duties as a commander in the United States Navy and supporting The Wounded Warrior Project, helping disabled veterans acclimate back to civilian life and find employment.
“Their lives have been turned upside down, and they may love the military and what they were doing, but they might not be able to continue [serving in their usual capacity] depending on their injury,” McAfee says of the soldiers he supports. “So we work with them by offering career advice, counseling, and training.” With nearly 300 injured Navy veterans detaching from the armed services a month who are unemployed, McAfee and others that work with Wounded Warriors across other branches of the military have their work cut out for them.
As some of the most respected members of society, military veterans frequently find themselves saluted by the general public and country leaders alike for their sacrifices and commitment to their country. For years, their return from combat has been met with celebrations. However, as wars abroad have begun to wind down, there has been an influx of military veterans looking to reenter the private workforce. With a global recession that has seen some of the most devastating cuts in employment, conditions are ripe for staggering underemployment and unemployment figures when it comes to military veterans.
The Department of Labor’s most recent job numbers indicate unemployment in the country is declining slightly, as the private sector added more than 200,000 jobs in December. Now at 8.5 percent, unemployment still remains a major issue for many. When looking at military veterans, the picture does not seem nearly as encouraging. For veterans who served from September 2001 to the present, the unemployment rate is at 13.1 percent—up 1.4 percent from December 2010. The numbers are even more sobering for veterans between the ages of 20 and 24, a group whose unemployment rate was 21 percent in July 2010. In all, more than 220,000 veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq are out of work.
So what can be made of these numbers? With all the honor and training that comes with military service, why are veterans seemingly at a disadvantage when it comes to employment? And where are people with disabilities falling in all of this?
Lost in Translation
Younger veterans in particular are finding it difficult to compete with other young applicants because they lack a resume that displays conventional work experience that employers are able to easily translate. Sam Seelbach, specialist in Work Environment at American Airlines and founder of the company’s military veterans resource group, points out that for many younger veterans, military enlistment is their first and only job out of high school. Without job experience—and in many cases, a college degree—competing with other applicants for jobs in the private sector becomes an arduous task beyond that of the average twenty-something hoping to land a stable position.
McAfee adds that while many disabled veterans are in rehabilitation facilities convalescing, other younger professionals are building their resumes, leaving injured veterans at a disadvantage. “A challenge is that [disabled veterans] come from high school and want to join the military, but end up losing a limb and may be convalescing for a year, so their resume might have gaps in it. An employer has to look beyond the last year that they have been convalescing,” McAfee says.
However, some military veterans who are not disabled are still finding it difficult to adequately translate the vast skill set they have acquired when serving in the military, to jobs in the private sector. “A lot of [employers] don’t think that military skills cross over to the private sector. So, equating military service to private employment can take some time to transition for employers and veterans seeking employment,” Seelbach says, speaking of the difficulty in transferring skills built in military service to working in a business or public setting.
Seelbach says that for their part, employers should also educate themselves on military language to market themselves as viable workplaces for military veterans. “The military has certain words that may not translate to the same job in the private sector. Education on military speak would be a great benefit for companies looking to recruit military veterans.”
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Employment
Beyond the lack of a common business lexicon, many veterans find themselves at a disadvantage because of perceived disabilities they may have sustained during combat. While most companies are aware of how to handle people with physical disabilities, many are still struggling to make sense of mental disabilities—particularly Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.)
Common amongst those who have seen active combat, in 2009, it was estimated that between 13 and 30 percent of veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq would suffer from P.T.S.D. As a result of the Persian Gulf War, between nine and 24 percent of veterans deployed experience P.T.S.D.
Seelbach adds, “With anyone with a disability, just because they have a physical limitation does not mean that they have a mental one. However, everyone needs to make themselves knowledgeable about P.T.S.D.” A lack of knowledge about P.T.S.D. is another site of uncommon ground between military veterans and the business world.
The New York Times pointed out that many employers veer away from hiring military veterans under the impression that P.T.S.D. will be too severe for them to contribute to the workplace smoothly. And while some cases can be severe enough to necessitate constant therapy and even medication, according to Seelbach, “other cases may necessitate little changes in work patterns and environment that will make a huge difference for military veteran team members.”
“In my experience with one particular employee, we just needed to move her desk to a quieter spot in the office because she had trouble adjusting to being in large crowds and louder environments. It was a minor adjustment that went a long way,” Seelbach adds.
Still, a June 2010 member survey conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management found that 46 percent believed P.T.S.D. posed serious hiring challenges, while only 22 percent said the same thing about combat-related physical disabilities. A clear stigma exists when it comes to combat-related mental disabilities.
Bridging the Gap
At its peak, 170,000 soldiers were stationed in Iraq. Today, about 5,000 are still there. By the end of 2012, nearly 40,000 troops are expected to return from serving in Afghanistan. Many of these veterans will be looking for full-time employment across a myriad of industries, balancing adjustment back to civilian life and maintaining reservist status—meaning they could be recalled to duty and must participate in training exercises one weekend a month, two weeks a year.
Finding themselves at an acclimation crossroads can only be more difficult based on the challenges they face when attempting to penetrate the private sector workforce. Employers making concerted efforts to learn more about military life and jargon, and coming to the table with an open mind regarding the skills veterans bring to the table from their military experience will have an edge.
Likewise, displaying a commitment to employing military veterans by actively recruiting from veteran job boards can also be a great step. VetJobs.com, HireVeterans.com, and offices at local military bases can all be great outreach opportunities for employers looking to expand their workforce to include veterans. As is the case with most inclusion issues, finding a common ground or a common interest goes a long way in attracting and retaining some of the most forgotten people in our employment pool.
For McAfee, companies reaching out to projects like Wounded Warriors by offering unpaid internships to disabled soldiers create a win-win situation for them and veterans. “Providing internships for soldiers does not involve money on the part of companies. It would be an opportunity for wounded warriors to do something different than what they were doing in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.” In this way, McAfee says, companies can get hardworking team players—many of whom have high technology qualification--while the soldiers will get experience in the private sector and inroads into entry-level positions once they detach from the military.
(Photo used under Creative Commons from The U.S. Army)
About the Author
Michael Collins is the Research and Publications Analyst of Diversity Best Practices.
