Vanessa Redford came out of the U.S. Marine Corps uncertain and unemployed.
The economy was cooling, job opportunities were shrinking and while she tried school, it didn’t feel right and she didn’t finish, she said. “I didn’t know what else to do. I had accounting in the Marines and did well at it. But I guess I didn’t like business very much.”
When she saw Veterans in Piping – a union-military program that taught welding – she signed up.
She was, like many veterans, struggling with the shift from uniform to civilian life. That transition is even harder when the job market is arguably the harshest it has been in more than six decades.
The experience of veterans now parallels the larger labor market: Joblessness is worse among younger workers, especially those with little education or – like Redford – certain skills.
Across the United States, roughly 958,000 veterans are out of work and searching for a job, most of them older than 34, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Redford is a welder now and she likes it. “When you start out with nothing and put it all together and you have something, there’s a feeling of accomplishment.”
A native of the state of Washington, Redford, 30, is like an increasing number of workers: She wanted work more than she wanted to stay put. She moved to Douglasville in July to take a job with Norcross-based B&W Mechanical Contractors.
“They said to us, ‘We guarantee you work, but you’ve got to go where the jobs are.’ I’ve always felt destined for Atlanta and had a heart for the South. I came down.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, October’s unemployment rate among workers age 20 to 24 is high but far worse for veterans. Nonveterans in that age group are jobless at a 15.2 percent clip. For vets, the rate is 24.4 percent.
The comparison evens out a bit among older workers.
Among nonveterans age 25 to 34, 10 percent are officially jobless. Veterans in that cohort have an 11 percent jobless rate.
Overall, veterans actually do a little better than others: Unemployment was 8.1 percent in October – 958,000 officially looking for work. The rate for nonvets was 9.3 percent, with the worst joblessness among the youngest workers.
When they lose their jobs, veterans average two weeks longer in the job search. Among veterans, Vietnam vets spend the most time before landing another job: an average of 36 weeks.
Nonveterans average 28.3 weeks.
Sometimes vet status is an advantage, as when an employer – whether a vet or not – makes an effort to hire vets. That willingness is tested when the economy hits rough seas.
Doug Martin, owner of B&W Mechanical Contractors in Norcross, is himself a disabled Navy veteran who went to work for B&W after leaving the service and bought the company a few years later.
When a reservist gets called to active duty, the company has on occasion made up the difference between the worker's paycheck at B&W and his pay in uniform, Martin said. “It is something that is near and dear to our hearts.”
So when he heard from officials from the United Association, the union that helps run the training program that Vanessa Redford was in, Martin was interested.
“She was the first one to come out of the training, and we hired her,” he said. “Because of the economy, our man-hours are down across the board about 30 percent from last year. With Vanessa, we were fortunate enough to have a couple of projects locally, so there is work for her.”
A service background may not guarantee a worker has discipline, but Martin was not surprised that Redford has spent many hours of free time training to upgrade her skills.
“She is a hardworking individual. She will do anything that the job requires. She is absolutely fantastic.”
Georgia has 743,000 vets, more than half of them in the job market. In October, roughly 429,000 were working, mostly full time, while 38,000 were jobless – an 8.2 percent unemployment rate. That is more than two points better than the overall state rate, but the pain is likely much worse for younger vets, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics cannot provide a Georgia breakdown by age.
Nationally, jobseekers outnumber openings by more than 6-to-1. Even veterans who left the military long ago have been subject to the same dangerous economic tides as everyone else.
Some scramble to buff up their resumes even while they are looking for work.
Karmen Bergman, 21, of Stockbridge returned in July from a stint handling port security with the Navy in Kuwait. She is now in a program at Georgia Perimeter College while she looks for work in law enforcement or security – “anything that the military has taught me.”
She has some money from school loans and she’s still in the Reserve, but that pays her just $219 a month before taxes. “Right now, I’m OK, but it’s running short.”
She has been to the state’s Labor Department job centers and to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs looking for leads. Last week, she went to her first job fair.
“I am pretty hopeful,” she said.
And some people are getting hired – it’s just that the odds are tough.
Tim Taylor, 38, of Duluth was a field supervisor for Schlumberger in Texas. Laid off in February, he headed back to Georgia. Since then, he has sent out more than 300 resumes, gone to the Department of Veterans Affairs for help, filed applications with temporary agencies and trotted through job fairs.
“The companies are pretty much just taking paper – collecting resumes – because they don’t have positions open,” Taylor said.
Taylor came out of the Army in 1998, attending accounting school during his decade in uniform. He obtained a bachelor’s degree and a master’s afterward. “In the past, being a vet would have helped," he said, "but in today’s job market, it’s pretty much irrelevant.”
CHART DATA
I.
October unemployment rate
Veterans Nonveterans
Total 8.1% 9.3%*
Age 20-24 24.4% 15.2%
Age 25-34 11.0% 10.0%
Age 25-54 8.3% 8.5%
Age 55 and up 7.1% 6.4%
*Does not include 16- to 18-year-olds, who are unemployed at nearly three times that rate.
II.
October duration of joblessness
Average weeks out of work
Veterans 30.4
Nonveterans 28.3
Vietnam vets 35.9
Iraq war vets 23.6
III.
October number of veterans
Georgia United States
Total vets 743,000 22.1 million
In work force 468,000 11.9 million
Working full time 384,000 9.4 million
Working part time 45,000 1.5 million
Unemployed 38,000 958,000
[Civilian adult population 6.4 million 205.5 million]
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
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