Disturbing new statistics from the Labor Department show that one in three veterans under age 24 is unemployed — and that the unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans has jumped to 14.7 percent, half again as high as the national employment rate of 9.7 percent.

The March unemployment rate of 30.2 percent for veterans aged 18 to 24 is a big jump from February’s figure of 21.7 percent, although it may be partly the result of a small sample used by the Labor Department in determining unemployment, said Justin Brown, a labor expert for Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Still, Brown said, the data on veterans employment are still headed in the wrong direction.

The unemployment rate for veterans of all ages was 9.8 percent in March, nearly identical to the national rate. Brown said that marks a decline for veterans, who for the last two years were more likely to be employed that nonveterans.

But Iraq and Afghanistan veterans’ unemployment rate was 14.7 percent in March, compared with 10.7 percent a year ago.

“Everyone knew it was going to get worse. We didn’t expect it to be this bad,” said Tom Tarantino of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “What we have here is an actual problem, a systemic problem.”

Veterans groups are pushing the federal government, which recently launched a program to boost hiring of veterans for federal jobs, to do more to help veterans find work in the private sector.

Mark Walker, an employment specialist with the American Legion, said the government needs to do more to sell the advantages of hiring veterans to private-sector businesses, which may be afraid to give a job to a new veteran because of news reports about post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.
Businesses need to be reassured that veterans with such problems are still highly qualified workers who bring special skills and dedication to the job, Walker said.

“We need aggressive outreach to private employers,” he said. “With or without medical problems, there is no seamless transition from military to civilian life without a job.”

Brown, Tarantino and Walker agreed that one way to address the high unemployment rate among young veterans is to improve job training and vocational training benefits. They noted that jobs are hard to come by for people without college degrees unless than have a particularly sought-after skill.

“The VFW was raising the issue of veterans’ unemployment when the numbers showed there were about 100,000 unemployed new veterans,” Brown said. “Today, the number is about 250,000 and the government still has not done some basic things, like providing loans to small businesses and making sure the government really sets aside contracts for veteran-owned small businesses.”