Disabled vets face challenges finding a job

Eve Tahmincioglu • Profile • E-mail

The job market is anything but easy these days. But imagine if you were a disabled veteran having to deal with your injuries and reconnecting with civilian life while juggling resume writing, retraining and networking.

That’s pretty much the challenge many wounded veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan face.

Thanks to medical advances, soldiers are able to survive devastating injuries that may have killed them in previous wars, experts say, and that’s creating a large pool of disabled vets looking for jobs once they return home. They are also struggling with hidden disabilities, such as traumatic brain injuries and mental health issues.

There are a total of 868,717 veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and about 225,191 are collecting disability benefits, according to figures from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“Disabled vets have a lot of unique challenges, and they have a hard time finding jobs,” says Paul Rieckhoff, executive director with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

He estimates that the jobless rate among his 100,000 members is in the double digits, with no sign of relief.

Little help from the government
The government and corporate America, he says, are not doing enough to help the men and women who were injured in combat find job training and job opportunities.

Indeed, the jobless rate as of 2007 for veterans returning from these recent wars is 6.1 percent, nearly 2 percentage points higher than non-military folks. While the jobless rates among disabled and non-disabled vets is about even, only 81.8 percent of disabled Iraq and Afghanistan vets are active job holders or job seekers compared with 90.7 percent of veterans without a disability, according to the Department of Labor.

Rieckhoff says the low participation rate among disabled veterans is a function of their circumstances. While some will never be able to hold down a job because their disabilities may be too severe, others don’t know where to turn for help.

“In general the VA has done a poor job of setting folks up for the job market,” he explains.

While the VA is not an employment agency, it does offer vocational programs to help injured vets find new occupations, said VA spokesman Jim Benson. The VA also operates about 220 centers throughout the United States that offer counseling and links to employment services, he says.

Raul Rodriguez served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2005, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. When was honorably discharged from Army in 2006 he received little help from the government in finding a job.

Thanks to the connections he made while he was still serving, Rodriguez was able to land a job as a field support manager with Raytheon, a defense contractor, when he returned home.

“I got lucky because they know my condition and they always give me time when they see my attitude is changing,” he explains. “It's hard to work sometimes because I can’t concentrate. I can't do a task like a normal person does. It takes me hours, if not days, to complete a task.”

‘Highly talented individuals’
Understanding employers are key to helping these disabled vets get back into the work world.

“With the right assistance and support, a wounded vet can do anything,” says Ryan Kules with The Wounded Warrior Project, an injured vet advocacy group.

Kules, who lost an arm and leg in Iraq, is now helping disabled vets reintegrate into the workplace. “There are jobs they thought they’d never be able to do, and these things need to be looked at on a case-by-case basis. But with help like special software, or just a bit more time to do things, they can go back to work,” he adds.

“These are highly talented individuals,” says Carol Harnett, a health and disability expert with The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., which recently teamed up with The Wounded Warrior Project to host the "Beyond the Battlefield" leadership summit, a conference to help wounded vets improve their leadership and networking skills. “I have worked with well over 100 veterans. I can tell you these people have developed on battlefield skill sets that are critical for success in business.”

The company even provides a free guide for employers called: “Workplace Warriors: The Corporate Response to Deployment and Reintegration.”

Her advice to both employers and wounded veterans is to accept the disability and focus on the abilities.

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