Veterans still struggle with high unemployment in Ohio Number of veterans in Ohio who are 18 & older Number of veterans in the labor force Number of veterans employed Unemployed veterans Veteran unemployment rate Civilian unemployment rate of workers 18 and older in Ohio 2012 819,000 410,000 379,000 31,000 7.6% 6.9% 2011 866,000 438,000 391,000 47,000 10.7% 8.2% 2010 906,000 474,000 422,000 52,000 11.0% 9.6% 2009 942,000 513,000 459,000 54,000 10.5% 10.0% 2008 959,000 534,000 502,000 32,000 5.9% 6.0% 2007 953,000 553,000 525,000 28,000 5.0% 5.2% 2006 962,000 551,000 528,000 22,000 4.0% 5.4% Source: Current Population Survey, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Unemployment among veterans is falling in Ohio, but it’s not because veterans are suddenly finding work. It’s because many of them are giving up trying to find jobs, according to a Dayton Daily News review of federal data.
Many veterans struggle to market and translate their military skills to civilian workplaces. At least 31,000 vets in Ohio could not find jobs last year.
Some veterans are retiring; others have given up looking for work out of frustration.
Still, Ohio no longer ranks among the worst states in the nation for jobless vets, and a growing number of employers are participating in the nationwide “Joining Forces” campaign to hire or train 250,000 veterans and military spouses by the end of 2014. But the pool of employed vets statewide fell to 379,000 last year down from 528,000 in 2006.
Job experts said veterans often face a unique set of barriers to employment, including a lack of experience hunting and applying for civilian jobs and stigmas about their mental and emotional health. But veterans can be valuable assets to employers because they offer leadership, discipline, cooperation and they often have highly technical skills. Veterans just need to effectively convey these traits to employers.
“There is a lot of goodwill out there to help veterans get jobs, but I would encourage any veteran who is need of work to treat it like a mission,” said Mike McKinney, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Veterans Services. “Veterans have the responsibility to make the effort to get their resumes together and go to interviews.”
Between 2007 and 2011, Ohio had one of the highest veteran unemployment rates in the nation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But then the rate dropped sharply to 7.6 percent in 2012 from 10.7 percent in 2011.
Ohio is now tied with New York for the 14th highest veteran unemployment rate. New Jersey had the highest unemployment rate (10 percent) while Nebraska had the lowest (2.9 percent). Survey data was not available last year for two states: North Dakota and Vermont.
The economic downturn was tough on everyone, but it was especially hard on veterans, who consistently had a higher unemployment rate than other members of the population. In Ohio, veteran unemployment rose to 10.5 percent in 2009 from 5.9 percent in 2008, the data show. The unemployment rate peaked at 11 percent in 2010, and then dipped to 10.7 percent in 2011.
The economic downturn was hard on everyone, but it was especially tough on veterans.
Veterans who lack job-search skills were put at a disadvantage when the recession caused massive layoffs that flooded the labor market with experienced workers, labor experts said. For every job opening in many fields, there were multiple job-seekers.
“It’s tough sometimes to get hired over the college graduates with all the good resumes,” said Leonard Roberts, 57, of Dayton, who is unemployed and was discharged from the Marines after an injury in 1975.
Veterans learn many skills while serving, but they do not always understand how to articulate their skills to employers or apply them to the civilian labor market, said Benjamin Johnson, spokesman with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
“People choose different paths within the military and come out skilled in communications, logistics, management or in a number of different things,” he said. “But we work with veterans who have never needed to write a civilian resume.”
But veterans face more obstacles than just stiff competition.
Wise investment
Some employers are reluctant to hire veterans because they fear the workers may have post-traumatic stress disorder or other conditions relating to combat that could negatively affect their work, said McKinney, with the Ohio Department of Veterans Services.
In reality, he said, only a fraction of returning soldiers suffer from these disorders. He added that some employers fail to recognize that the skills learned in the military can translate into workplace success.
Some employers are reluctant to offer jobs to members of the National Guard or Army Reserves because they fear the workers could be deployed and by law they must keep the job , McKinney said. By law, the employers must hold a job open for the veteran when they
“An employer will think, ‘Heck, at the rate of these deployments, a guy will work for me for a year and then he’ll go away for a year,’ and by federal law, the employer has to keep a job for that person,” he said.
Workers with military backgrounds usually possess leadership qualities and they have strong work ethics, said Scott Ross, district human resource adviser for FedEx.
“They show up to work on time, they know how to do a job correctly, they know how to follow directions,” he said.
On Tuesday, FedEx was one of about 70 employers and military service groups that participated in the “Hiring Our Heroes” job fair at the Dayton Marriott. Ross said FedEx has about 20 job openings in Huber Heights, Dayton and West Jefferson.
Veterans have integrity, they understand the importance of teamwork and they pay attention to detail, said Rick Tallarigo, senior human resource manager with GE Capital in Kettering.
The company was at the job fair in search of talent to fill about 100 call center and manufacturing positions between Dayton and Cincinnati. GE also sponsored a transition workshop at the job fair to help veterans with resumes and interviewing skills.
“We have open positions and we want to make sure we recognize those who have served their country,” Tallarigo said. “In addition, they have the traits we want.”
Employers participating in the “Joining Forces” campaign have pledged to help the 9/11 generations of veterans — those who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — and whose jobless rate is nearly two points higher than the national average, at 9.4 percent. Some employers said they are not hiring veterans out of charity — they do it because it is a wise investment in talented individuals.
In January, Walmart said it would hire more than 100,000 veterans in the next five years. GE plans to hire more than 5,000 vets in the next five years, and will hire 400 workers at its Evendale-based aviation business. Verizon said it employs nearly 12,000 veterans and hired more than 550 in 2011.
Bill Jones, 49, of Dayton, served in the U.S. Army between 1986 and 1997, and said he worked on the Apache helicopter program, developing laser optics, missile guidance and other electronic systems.
Jones, who was laid off from a digital documents company last year, said he believes he is an attractive candidate to many employers because he has a wealth of technical knowledge, much of which he learned in the military.
“I couldn’t have gotten to where I am today without it,” he said. “I pride myself on my work ethic and my dedication to duty.”
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