If the United States is to recover from its worst unemployment crisis since the Great Depression, Americans must get serious about giving jobs to veterans.
Almost one-third of veterans from Gulf War II to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are out of work, according to a new report by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The official jobless number for vets aged 18-24 is 29.1%. For civilians in the same age group, it’s 17.6%. These numbers don’t count those who don’t register for unemployment or other benefits, so the actual rate is far higher.
Officially, unemployment among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is 11.6%, higher than the 8.3% national average for civilians.
Ask job counselors working with veterans and they’ll tell you Washington’s numbers don’t come close to accurately counting the jobless vets they’re seeing. Many fear Americans will turn their backs on these warriors, just as the country did to Vietnam vets.
This is a moral issue: We asked troops to risk their lives to protect Americans from another terrorist attack.
It’s a financial issue: If we don’t provide employment for more than 1 million returnees, we will pay in higher medical and social costs, and incalculable costs in human suffering.
It is also a fundamental issue for American safety and prosperity.
NBC’s Anne Curry, in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, notes that getting veterans back to work “may well be the most selfish thing our nation can do right now.”
Selfish because the “best and the brightest”, who had the training and courage to fight in multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, have skills and leadership that can fuel America’s economic recovery, she emphasizes.
“Whether today’s military men and women—the best-trained and most experienced military force in the history of our nation—can similarly drive our economy largely depends on whether we remember our history,” Curry writes, referring to the post-war economic recovery spurred by World War II vets. She’s the daughter of a veteran too.
NBC News today launched a “Hiring Our Heroes” campaign, starting with military job fairs across the nation. Its emphasis is on Corporate America, because the national campaign is twinned with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
(Check for upcoming job fairs in 400 communities across the country.)
Many corporate heavyweights have signed on, from Microsoft to Home Depot. Mid-sized firms have made pledges too, leaving the heart of the country, the nation’s small business owners, to quietly do what they always do — hire their neighbors.
Hiring vets is “good for the bottom line,” the White House says, touting academic research showing the benefits to business.
It helps employers to get tax credits up to $9,600 for each worker, signed into law last fall by President Barack Obama. More government aid is available for training too.
In an election campaign year, veterans are the poster heroes for the estimated 20 million unemployed workers in the U.S.
We hope this will spur employers to begin hiring again, and for consumers to get more involved in this nation’s recovery.
hireyourneighbor 