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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

After "Huge Progress," Veterans Are Still Struggling To Find Employment

While the unemployment rate for veterans has dropped dramatically in the last year, two veterans advocates told CNN’s Candy Crowley this morning that finding jobs for veterans remains a major issue. Paul Rieckhoff, founder and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said there has been “huge progress” on helping unemployed veterans because President Obama has instituted policies to reduce veteran unemployment and Fortune 500 companies are also helping returning servicemembers.

The unemployment rate for veterans between ages 18 and 24 is more than 17 percent, down from 29 percent, but Tim Tetz, legislative director of the American Legion, said that younger veterans are still facing a higher unemployment rate than their civilian counterparts, which stands at 15 percent. Older veterans are also struggling to find employment:

TETZ: [O]f the 780,000 veterans who are currently out of a job, two-thirds of them are between the ages of 35 and 64. And they might not have the resources like the GI Bill and many of the other things that these younger veterans have to use.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Turn the foreign expenditures inward & focus on such things as tornado alley.Tens of thousands of returning military personnel could literally spend years cleaning the mess up and rebuilding just from this years tornado's alone.When one looks at sites such as Joplin Missouri the reality of misguided priorities sets in,and Joplin is just the tip of the iceberg.