Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Young Veterans have 9.1% unemployment

What’s Going on with Young Veterans in the Labor Market? 

Given the risks they endure, it is troubling to think that many military veterans are having trouble entering the civilian labor market. While older veterans typically earn more and have similar employment rates as non-veterans in their same age group, that’s not true for younger veterans. In 2013, the unemployment rate for young veterans aged 25-34 was 9.1 percent, compared to 7.4 for non-veterans in the same age group. This is the cohort that enlisted after September 11, 2001 and some risked their lives in the harshest battles of Iraq and Afghanistan.
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People who attend higher quality schools—community colleges or universities, as indicated by higher graduation rates, not-for-profit status and graduation of students into higher paying fields—are significantly more likely to list higher-value skills on their resume, even controlling for experience, level of degree and major. These high-value skills include things network security, risk management, automation, JAVA programming, critical care nursing, financial forecasting, software development and business development.
For these reasons, the country needs to better prepare and encourage young veterans to aim higher when it comes to college enrollment, and high-quality colleges and universities need to do a better job of recruiting and retaining veterans. More and better access to data can help accomplish both goals.

2 comments:

  1. I absolutely agree. I was one of the few, back in 1995, who was honorably discharged from the Navy with a BS in Technology. I took full advantage of the GI Bill, and within a year used it to obtain my MS in Business Management. It took a lot of time and hard work, but extremely worth it in the end. Hiring employers viewed it as a triple whammy...military service, experience and 2 degrees.

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  2. Triple whammy for you, but not for most. I too have a graduate degree, undergraduate degree, served in Desert Storm, OIF III, am a disabled vet, certifications in IT, Tech related fields, leadership fields yet, I am labeled by most who interview me as "over qualified." I know it isn't my degrees or my qualifications because, I am slowly removing my education and presently most of my military experience and I am still described by those who interview me as "over qualified."
    I guess I will end up a well-educated burger flipper . . . so much for my service to my country. If I could do it again . . . I wouldn't.

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