Skills most sought-after by employers were in the information technology, transportation and health care industries, the talent index found.
The survey showed 71 percent of hiring recruiters had employed at least one veteran compared to 65 percent nationally in the past year. Monster.com, an online site that matches job seekers and employers, conducted the survey in August and September.
The survey polled 512 recruiter and hiring managers throughout the United States, which included 89 employers in Ohio, according to Monster. com. Employers had to have hired at least one veteran within the past year.
The index also polled 545 veterans throughout the United States, which included 168 in Ohio. Respondents were out of the military for less than five years, or on active duty and planned to leave the military within a year.
Veterans felt confident in their job skills, with 70 percent declaring they will be successful in a civilian career, the index found. Former service members seek military-friendly employers and 43 percent reported they would consider leaving their job if management didn’t support veterans and the military, the survey reported.
The toughest obstacle
Finding jobs for veterans recently out of the military is a unique challenge.
“The biggest challenge that veterans face is basically translating their military skills into civilian terminology,” said Daniel M. Semsel, a veterans employment services program manager at the non-profit Veterans & Employers Connection in Dayton.
The retired Air Force colonel sent out about 80 applications for jobs before a network connection led him to the non-profit agency that’s part of Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley.
Whether it’s an artillery soldier or a submarine sailor, military technical skills may not easily translate into civilian work. Veterans often emphasize technical skills and overlook other abilities like leadership and communication when they write their resumes, Semsel said.
“I think there’s a lot of obstacles set up and I think a lot of veterans don’t know how to maneuver around them,” said Cliff Montgomery, 49, an Army veteran who was unemployed for six years until he recently found a job.
Ohio Means Jobs, a website for job seekers that is operated by Monster.com, has a “military skills translator” that shows how skills acquired in the service can translate to civilian jobs. Veterans type in their title and the website lists the jobs that could be applicable.
Agencies such as the Veterans & Employers Connection also help veterans make the transition to the civilian workplace.
In 2013, veterans of all eras had a 6.6 percent unemployment rate compared to 7.2 percent nationally. Post-9/11 veterans, often much younger than veterans of other eras, had an unemployment rate of 9 percent nationally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. In Ohio last year, veterans had a 6.8 percent unemployment rate compared to 7.3 percent for the population as whole. A breakout for post-9/11 veterans was not available.
Adam L. Williams, 25, a former Army combat engineer in Afghanistan, decided he had to go to college to earn a degree to earn more money in the civilian world. He had two jobs in Sidney — one installing windows, the other in an aluminum castings plant — after he got out of the military.
“It was pretty hard,” said Williams, who works as a restaurant cook while he attends Wright State. “Most jobs I had were temp jobs.”
Being a veteran hasn’t made finding a job easier, he said, but he tapped into military service benefits to pay for college. The military can “really put somebody on their feet and give them discipline,” he said.
At the University of Akron, the American Legion opened a post with the mission of connecting student veterans with entrepreneurs and finding jobs, said Steven R. Downey, post president and a former Army combat medic.
“A lot of American Legion posts have bars or gambling where we are the complete opposite,” said Downey, 28. “We don’t care about having a beer together. We can about making sure you get a job.”
Vietnam veteran Jay Musson, 66, led efforts to create the post on the northeast Ohio college campus.
“If you can network, that’s the way to get a job, a lasting job,” he said.
Making it in the civilian world
Jonathan Granata, 26, left the Air Force last year and headed for both college and the job market.
His fellow veterans have marketable skills, the Beavercreek man said, and often had leadership positions in the military. Some, though, may not be ready for the adjustment to lower-level civilian jobs.
“They know leadership,” he said. “They have done things that most people our age haven’t done, and to be bumped down to the bottom of the ladder is hard for a lot of people.”
Granata worked at a jewelry store in a mall until he was hired at the Veteran and Military Center at Wright State University in Fairborn.
“I guess for the most part it was very intimidating because you go through five and a half years of never having to think about a job interview,” said the former airman studying organizational leadership at WSU. “I think just the process of looking for jobs was very overwhelming. So many choices, not knowing what I was going to do.”
The Dayton region is “extremely rich” in job opportunities, Semsel said. He pointed to the future opening of Fuyao Glass America with as many as 1,000 jobs in part of a closed General Motors Co. truck plant in Moraine, and Proctor & Gamble’s $90 million Midwest distribution center near the Dayton International Airport that will employ 1,300 workers by the end of next year.
“There’s lots of opportunities for people with all skills and all levels, and the Dayton community really embraces their military population,” he said.
Montgomery, an Army veteran who lives in Dayton, is a comeback story. He left his job as an accountant in Springboro in 2008 because of severe arthritis that left him, for a while, walking with a cane.
“I couldn’t walk,” he said. “I couldn’t get around.”
He had a long road to find a job. When health issues started to ease, he started looking again in 2010. It was “pretty bleak,” he said. “I was looking for work. I applied for disability. I was practically immobile.”
For a while, he said, he was homeless. He lived with friends or in a shelter.
Montgomery went to the non-profit Veterans & Employers Connection this summer and prepped for job interviews and received customer call center service training.
“That wasn’t my skill set, but it did open the door to a few other things,” he said.
Two months ago, he started a job as a senior procurement coordinator for Honeywell, a company that makes firefighting gear.
Now, he has a stable job and an apartment in Dayton.
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