The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Veterans struggle to find jobs

JIM NOELKER

ENLARGE PHOTO

JIM NOELKER

ENLARGE PHOTO

Veterans struggle to find jobs

Man, 68, drowns at Caesar Creek Lake
5/26/12
Water rescues prompt warning from health officials
5/25/12
Beach Waterpark sued for failure to deliver
5/25/12
Raleigh Trammell’s defense opens in felony trial
5/25/12
UD to move satellite campus to Dublin
5/25/12
> More headlines

By Margo Rutledge Kissell, Staff Writer Updated 3:21 PM Thursday, November 11, 2010

The October unemployment rate for veterans who have served since September 2001 was 10.6 percent, a full percentage point above the national average.

Gary King, 40, of Beavercreek, knows the frustration far too well.

He was on his second tour of duty in Iraq when ASD America Inc., the company he worked for in Dayton fixing up foreclosed and other bank-owned homes, shut its doors.

When Gary King’s brother notified him in Iraq that the job he had back in the Miami Valley was gone, he tried not to think about it.

“Being over there, you try not to stress about it because you have a job to do,” he said. “But in the back of your mind, you think, 'When I get home, I’m going to have to hurry up and get a job.’ ”

That was 20 months ago.

King returned home in April 2009 with no job and hasn’t been able to find another since.

The Army reservist who has been trained as a military mechanic estimates he’s applied for up to 40 positions, including ones in maintenance, security and construction. He’s been told he’s overqualified or not qualified because he doesn’t have a college degree.

He never thought it would be this difficult and now wonders if some employers might be leery of hiring a reservist who could get deployed again.

“A lot of guys who have returned from deployments are just like me,” he said.

“They’re sitting out of work.”

The Beavercreek man said he figured there would be plenty of opportunities but returned here to find a much different job market than he recalled when he left for Iraq in May 2008.

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America reports approximately 201,000 new veterans are out of work and looking for jobs. In 2008, the average unemployment rate for veterans of those wars was 7.3 percent. With the average unemployment rate for the first 10 months of this year for veterans of those wars standing at 11.7 percent, the group is concerned it will spell record unemployment for new veterans.

While military men and women receive attention for their service on this Veterans Day, Gov. Ted Strickland has declared all of November “hire a veteran month” to encourage employers to consider them while filing positions.

Benjamin Johnson, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, said his department doesn’t track the number of unemployed veterans statewide but does outreach to help them.

“We have staff at every one-stop center around the state there specifically to serve veterans,” he said, noting Montgomery County’s Job Center is among them.

That outreach includes helping veterans craft a resume and prepare for interviews, and matching veterans who are looking for work with employers looking to hire.

Johnson said being a veteran often “is a real asset on a resume, and employers try to look for that.”

On Wednesday, a job fair geared toward veterans was held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Base spokesman Derek Kaufman said there were 477 job seekers at the event featuring more than 80 employers from Ohio and four other states.

“We recognize we want to take care of our own,” he said. “To the degree we can make a difference, we want to do that.”

Johnson speculated that one reason so many new veterans could be facing a tougher time job hunting is because many join the military immediately upon graduation from high school.

“The national recession has been especially hard on people with only a high school diploma,” he said.

King said he’d like to find work in the Dayton area to alleviate the burden on his wife, Melanie, who works at Wright State University.

He knows he could use the GI Bill to go to college to seek a degree but said his first priority is taking care of his family by finding a job to supplement his Army Reserve duty pay which brings in just $300 a month.

As King watches the kids during the day, he scans the newspaper and looks online looking for any new job prospects.

“Hopefully, I’ll catch a break,” he said.

Share this article