Life in the military can be difficult enough without having to worry about employment opportunities for a soldier's life after service. Thankfully, several recent statistics point to the beginning of the end for the alarming trend of high unemployment rate among recent and long-time veterans alike.
A helping hand from the private sector
In 2011, a group of 11 companies that included JPMorgan Chase, AT&T, Verizon and EMC announced that they would be partnering to form the 100,000 Jobs Mission in order to hire 100,000 military veterans by the year 2020. According to a press release from the group, the unemployment rate for the U.S. sat at 8.9 percent at the time of the announcement, with the smaller and disproportionately affected sample size of veterans at 9.2 percent.
Just shy of three years since the group's formation, it has met – and surpassed – its goal. The Military Times reported that not only has the group's number of member companies skyrocketed from the original 11 to the current 131, but that they have hired 117,439 veterans in a variety of industries across the country. The wild success the program has experienced in reaching its goal seven years ahead of schedule prompted the companies to double down on their original pledge.
They now promise to hire an additional 100,000 veterans before the decade is out.
Decreasing numbers, increasing hope
The success of the 100,000 Jobs Mission is indicative of a larger trend within the community of unemployed veterans, both young and old – they are finding jobs.
The unemployment rate for veterans who served after 9/11 hit its high-water mark in January 2012 when the number spiked to 12 percent, according to the Washington Post. A year and a half later in November 2013, the number for overall unemployment had fallen to 6.7 percent and the most recent numbers show a continued decrease to 5.5 for December.
The post-9/11 veteran unemployment numbers may seem more drastic – they fell from 9.9 percent to 7.3 percent from November to December – but with a smaller sample size, the month-to-month statistics of the group will change more rapidly. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recommends looking at the annual figures for the group instead, but even there the news is good: from December 2012 to 2013, the rate dropped 3.5 percentage points.
Where are the jobs coming from?
It can be easy to chalk job growth up to the improving economy, but several key factors have led to more and more veterans finding employment for life after the military. While many companies have been happy to hire combat veterans for their experience and skills, employers and prospective employees alike have found it somewhat difficult to transfer their abilities directly to the civilian workforce.
As the Washington Post explains, "The 10,000 military healthcare workers or 10,000 military truck drivers who left the armed services last year often have to pass new tests and go through a fresh set of licensing hurdles in order to get a job as a civilian EMT or truck driver – even if they already have the required skills."
The licensing requirements are largely bureaucratic but a costly and time-consuming hurdle for many veterans who have already been living off unemployment checks for months. As a result, the White House released a report entitled, "The Fast Track to Civilian Employment," which outlined several measures in which they would streamline the process for veterans to receive workable credentials for skills gained in the military.
In addition, several Congressman have initiated programs such as the Veterans Conservation Corps, which seeks to employ retired military men and women in "wildfire protection, recreation enhancement, and habitat restoration."
With programs along those lines and another 100,000 jobs on the way from successful corporations, expect the unemployment rate among all veterans to decrease well into the future.
Veteran homelessness is one of the country's hardest problems to address, but Phoenix might have found the answer.
The specific number is hard to nail down, but according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are upwards of 60,000 homeless veterans on any given night in the U.S., or about 12 percent of the adult homeless population. Until last year, Phoenix had about 220 veterans without a stable living situation, Mayor Greg Stanton told USA Today.
Thanks to new funds from the Federal stimulus that allowed for more affordable housing and a new policy toward mental health and substance abuse, the city has housed nearly all veterans once without a home.
"In a housing first model," Stanton explained, "we understand that if someone has been on the streets for a long time, and been abusing drugs or alcohol for a long time, it may take awhile for them to be able to break that issue in their lives."
Other low-cost housing models immediately revoked support if drugs or alcohol were found to still be part of a veteran's life after service, but Phoenix has opted to aid veterans to a more healthy phase of their lives.
The program has been a wild success, with retention rates well above the 90 percent mark.
As part of the government-wide budget passed in 2013, the veterans benefits that governed the year-to-year adjustment for cost-of-living, or COLA, was to decrease 1 percent annually. After intense backlash from the veterans' affairs community, several Senators voiced their opinions against the provision on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, USA Today reports.
"I believe that the COLA reduction is wrong," Armed Services Committee chair Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said, "because it targets a single group – military retirees – to help address the budget problems of the federal government as a whole."
While a 1 percent annual reduction of pension funds may not seem like a large amount at first glance, the Marine Corps Times provides a breakdown of the long-term impact of the cuts. An E-7 retiree with over two decades of service stands to lose upwards of $100,000 by age 62, while the numbers only climb for officers.
"You don't join the military to get rich," retired Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James Roy told the Marine Corps Times. "We're still fighting a war, and now we are talking about reducing the COLA? I don't get it."
Members of the Indiana Senate are currently pushing a measure that would extend education benefits to military veterans who are trying to transition to life after service.
A senate committee has approved an amendment that would allow veterans to use courses and equivalency exams they took in the military as credit toward their degrees at state colleges and universities, The Associated Press reported. The measure will also encourage veterans to pursue teaching careers, and mandate that higher education institutions provide financial aid to all veterans admitted.
Amendment author state Sen. Jim Banks stated that the proposed legislation will help veterans by letting them apply what they learned in the military to their educational and occupational goals.
Indiana is just one of many states that's determined to provide support for veterans pursuing college degrees – a population that continues to grow as more servicemembers return from war in large numbers. According to NPR, the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill has helped around 860,000 veterans in its first three years. Sarah Yaw, who works with veterans at Cayuga Community College in upstate New York, told the news source that the college saw a 400 percent increase in enrolled veterans between 2009 and 2012.
NPR reported that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has conducted its annual survey of the nation's homeless population, including veterans.
Every January, HUD picks a night for its "point-in time" survey of the homeless population. According to reporter Quail Lawrence, who covers veterans, thousands of volunteers traveled throughout New York City on a frigid night this week, counting the number of those living without permanent shelter.
Lawrence said he went with the volunteers to Madison Square Park and Penn Station, and only met one veteran. The Department of Veterans Affairs uses the annual HUD report as a way to track veterans homelessness in the U.S.
"[The VA] has said that maybe 12 percent of the homeless population are veterans … Predominantly Vietnam [War veterans] are among the homeless population," Lawrence reported. "There is a figure of about 48,000 thousand post-9/11 veterans who were helped out by the VA in some way, according to last year's statistics. They were either helped out for being homeless or on the verge of homelessness."
The most recent homelessness report from HUD was released in the fall of 2013. The department found that on any single night in January 2013, there were more than 57,000 veterans living without permanent housing.
While they may have been playing a game rather than serving in combat, a few former NFL players who have already made the switch to retirement shared their stories with veterans adapting to life after service.
Former members of the Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns and Indianapolis Colts were on hand to talk veterans through the transition to new phases of their post-service lives at the Jan. 19 "Real Warriors, Real Battles, Real Strength Game Day," event in Fort Carson, Colo., according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. Much like servicemen and women, football players prepare their entire lives for a single purpose and when that career is taken away from them by age or injury, the change can be difficult.
"Depression knocked me out, insecurities knocked me out," said Chris Sanders, a former Titans wide receiver who played seven years in the league. "But when I reached out and got help – that's when I got back in the game."
The issues facing soldiers coming home or leaving active duty are as serious as they are numerous. One of the most prevalent is post-traumatic stress disorder, which Military.com says affects nearly 30 percent of all soldiers who have experienced combat situations.
Mental health services are usually included among benefits for veterans struggling with leaving their military career behind.
A group of Delaware veterans are restoring a combat-zone helicopter as a way to honor the fallen soldiers of the Vietnam War.
WBOC reported that the Delaware Vietnam Veterans of America recently acquired a UH-1 helicopter, also known as "Huey," which was used during the Vietnam War to rescue injured soldiers from the war zone. It took years for the group to find a Huey, because although hundreds were initially produced, only a small amount of remain.
"Once I seen it, it brought back a lot of memories," Joe Startt Jr., a Vietnam veteran who was saved by one of these helicopters during the war, told the news source. "My last ride was horizontal and I want to sit vertical up in this thing one time."
The helicopter is currently being refurbished so it can be placed as a Vietnam memorial at the Kent County Veterans Memorial Park in the upcoming months. According to Delaware Vietnam Veterans of America website, the group is hoping to hold a dedication ceremony for the memorial March 30, which is Vietnam Veterans Day.
About 2.7 million Americans served in the military during the Vietnam War, according to the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation.
A veterans group in Illinois is currently working to provide shelter and other services to homeless and at-risk veterans.
According to the Northwest Herald, the McHenry County Veterans Stand Down is joining forces with other organizations, including the Veterans Assistance Commission and the McHenry County Housing Authority, to provide housing assistance to county veterans currently living without permanent shelter. About 23 percent of the area's homeless population were veterans in 2013, compared to 46 percent in 2012. However, the news source reported that the sharp decrease could have been due to an area housing program that did not respond to the survey.
Stand Down recently held an event with the goal of attracting homeless and at-risk veterans to its available resources. According to the news outlet, Stand Down and the other participating organizations were pleased with the large turnout and hoped it was a sign that veterans will begin using more assistance.
"A lot of these organizations, people might not necessarily know about," Robin Doeden, executive director of the McHenry County Community Foundation, told the news source.
Veterans homelessness has become a top priority for both local and federal government agencies. A recent report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development found that there were more than 57,000 veterans living without permanent shelter in the U.S. in January 2013.
The Senate will be bringing military pensions back to the drawing board later this month in an effort to undo the recent cuts to the cost-of-living adjustments for working-age military retirees.
According to USA Today, a hearing slated for Jan. 28 will discuss military pensions and the recent changes made to the military retirement system. The hearing comes shortly after the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, which was approved by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama in late December. The bill authorized 1 percent cuts to the COLA payments of former servicemembers under the age of 62. However, these reductions will not begin until December 2015. A higher rate will apply once the retirees reach age 62.
While the Department of Defense approved the 1 percent cut to COLA, many veterans organizations and lawmakers opposed the reductions. According to The Washington Post, an omnibus Veteran Affairs bill that was introduced in the Senate last week includes a provision that will repeal the COLA reductions. Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced the bill, stating that it "delivers on the promises that we have made to our service members," the news source reported.
Female veterans are coming together in California to support others like them. Called the Inland Empire Women Veterans Unity Group, the newly formed organization, which plans to meet once a month, is determined to empower local female veterans, The San Bernardino Sun reported.
"The women veterans unity group meetings provide an environment of safety, support, motivation, awareness and information that promotes the improvement and productivity of female veterans," Ann Duson, the group's founder and president, told the news source.
In addition to weekly meetings, the women's organization plans to hold events throughout the year, such as the "Thank a Sheros" event to coincide with Women in Military History Week in March.
California women aren't the only female veterans joining forces to create a support network. The Philadelphia Inquirer also reported this week that a new facility opened in Philadelphia to provide various services to the city's female veterans. Aronda Smith, the coordinator of the Women Veterans Center, told the news source that the center was formed because most services available to veterans are "predominantly male." She added that the center will focus on more gender-specific issues.