Returning veterans face widespread unemployment

I received this link via e-mail from a friend on the Governor's Focus panel:

The unemployment rate last year for young Iraq and Afghanistan veterans hit 21.1 percent, the Labor Department said Friday, reflecting a tough obstacle combat veterans face as they make the transition home from war.

Many of the unemployed are members of the Guard and Reserves who have deployed multiple times, said Joseph Sharpe, director of the economic division at the American Legion. Sharpe said some come home to find their jobs have been eliminated because the company has downsized. Other companies may not want to hire someone who could deploy again or will have medical appointments because of war-related health problems, he said.

As I've covered in some previous diaries, the difficulties faced by veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are numerous and complex. Many of those who don't exhibit classic PTSD symptoms are still afflicted to some degree, trying to work things out on their own. But when one in five of them come home only to find they no longer have a job, working through those issues becomes next to impossible. It's hard to reintegrate yourself into a society when that society doesn't need you anymore.

And for those lucky enough to find a job waiting for them, just being able to perform to minimal standards, much less excel, can be a challenge:

Justin Wilcox, a 30-year-old Iraq veteran who is participating in a work-study program at a vet center operated by the Veterans Affairs Department in Charleston, W.Va., said he hasn't just had problems finding jobs, but keeping them. He's done work as a coal miner, as a salesman selling drill bits and in other positions, but he said mental health problems stemming from the war with side effects such as anger and difficulty concentrating have made it difficult.

"Basically, it's been a real hard time for me. Because when I do get a job, it's not a real high paying job," Wilcox said. "I have a difficult time relating to people and ... one job that I had that paid really good, I couldn't comprehend what I was supposed to do and how I was supposed to do it."

In my years of factory management, I devoted a lot of effort to turning marginal employees into productive ones, troublemakers into troubleshooters, distracted workers into focused workers, etc. I also had to coach the supervisors and line leaders who worked for me on the advantages and methods of rehabilitating said workers, and that was sometimes more challenging than fixing the broken folks.

Even during times of low unemployment, when workers had the advantage over management, employee rehabilitation was an alien concept to managers. Just keep looking until you find the "good ones", and to hell with the imperfect. But in a recession, when dozens are applying for each job? Forget about it. Even the slightest mistake or a perceived bad attitude is enough to earn someone a pink slip.

With all that in mind, consider an employee who has been absent from his or her job for 12-18 months while being deployed. Skills need to be re-mastered, you're competing with employees who hadn't even been hired yet when you left, you've got a mountain of family and financial issues bearing down on you, you're not sleeping nearly enough, unexpected loud noises make your heart race and bring back memories you're trying to suppress, and everybody else seems to be speaking a language and enjoying a life you can no longer understand.

In a head-to-head competition with others who are not facing these issues, this veteran will lose almost every time. And that loss will not only be felt by him or her, it will be felt by the family that has already sacrificed so much for our country.

If I had a magic wand, and I could wave it and make something automatically happen, I would make large and small business owners and the managers they employ understand these things. We owe it to these veterans and their families to make an extraordinary effort to get them back to work, so they can build the life they deserve.