Veterans return to high unemployment, tight job market

Veterans return to high unemployment, tight job market
By Richard Burnett, Orlando Sentinel
8:58 p.m. EDT, May 19, 2011
 
Kyle Evans just missed certain death when a bomb exploded under his military-convoy vehicle in Iraq. The Army logistics expert survived and returned home to Orlando nearly two years ago, though for the longest time he could not find work.

"I applied for so many jobs, I lost count," said the 28-year-old husband and father of two, who finally landed a job earlier this year at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Orlando. "It was getting pretty frustrating. This job market can be tough on anyone, but it can be twice as hard on veterans."

Amid the violence of combat, many veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan never imagined the added stress they would face in trying to find work back home, experts say.

Unemployment among these recent veterans is higher than among the rest of the population and among military veterans overall, according to the latest U.S. Labor Department data. In April, as the country continued its slow recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s, the jobless rate among Iraq and Afghanistan vets was nearly 11 percent, compared with 8.5 percent for nonveterans and 7.7 percent for veterans overall.
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Veterans return to high unemployment, tight job market