Job market not so easy for veterans
18.05.12
When Andrew Foster got out of the Navy a few years ago, his skills at working on a radar missile guidance system helped him land a California job for Starbucks fixing espresso machines.
The 28-year-old military veteran who had served all over the world, including an anti-terrorism and anti-piracy stint in the Persian Gulf, said he was fortunate to get into the civilian workforce at a time when it can be difficult for so many young veterans. But the transition from the military back into civilian life wasn’t seamless.
“It’s an entirely different set of standards and protocol and an entirely different structure as well,” said Foster, who grew up in Derby and returned to Kansas University in 2008 just before his maintenance division at Starbucks was eliminated and outsourced.
Now he’s among thousands of young military veterans across the country who have returned to college on the Post-9/11 GI Bill as a way to earn a degree and hone their skills amid a rough job market. With the national unemployment rate at 9.1 percent in August, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this year estimated the jobless rate among all veterans who served since 9/11, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, was a couple points higher.
Source: Lawrence Journal World