Those who have served in the military remember the veteran’s day as pride moment and why not it is a day to honor. But we cannot ignore the challenges that veterans are facing after returning home in a recent scenario. Veterans hope for a new start and a chance to show their worth with new opportunities. Unfortunately, as per the data of the council of economic adviser, the U.S. significant number of veterans are facing trouble in finding work and this unemployment rate remains incredibly high around 10 percent. It’s worth noting what are the factors negatively impact employment for recent veterans. 3 reasons for the higher unemployment rate among veterans is given below.
1. Post-traumatic stress disorder
The military personnel faces a very challenging and stressful situation during their stint in service. During wartime or war-like situations, exposure to traumatic and stressful situations is very high. It has been seen that the military personnel who return from situations of combat develop a high risk of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because of the traumatic events they may have been directly exposed to. Intrusive symptoms like the flashback, hypervigilance and developing negative emotions are commonly occurring in PTSD.
The effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are very heavy on their day to day working, relationships and job prospects too. The effects of PTSD can be harmful to mental health and physical health also. In such situations presenting oneself to the employers who are looking to hire becomes a challenging task. Even when the effect of PTSD is less, the kind of job one may have to do will also have a varied effect. For jobs that demand to arrange for things and carrying out a plan physically may be suitable, however, in case of jobs like marketing, which demand to pursue someone may be difficult to execute for veterans.
2. Lack of desired skill for employment
Retired military persons have enough traits that make them fit for all types of organization: leadership ability, disciplined routine, plenty of knowledge about information technology and health care.
But they don’t acquire enough civilian work experience. And most of the organization prefers to choose an experienced employee for their desired task. In some special cases like a weak economy, lack of manpower they don’t prefer to do many experiments during the hiring process.
We can observe that the veterans who had work experienced in armed forces had a higher unemployment rate on the other hand for veterans who had work experience in the national or reserved guard had a lower employment rate because they might have enough chances to pick up civilian work experiences. The veteran who had done some effort to make their military work experience relevant for civilian employers from the very beginning can successfully make their position among the civilian employee. In America, some initiative has been taken to help the veterans by providing resources and conducting programs like “hiring our heroes”. Hiring our Heroes programs is an initiative taken by the U.S. government for conducting job fairs and workshops for military veterans.
3. Negative assumptions and conventions
Some negative stereotype and rumor have been spread about military veterans that’s why many employers feel little hesitant while hiring them. According to a survey of society for human resource management around one among three veterans considered PTSD to be a hurdle to hiring veterans. Due to a lack of awareness, a false stigma has been attached to PTSD. People believe that it is a type of brain injury and serious abnormality that makes the military veterans to unfit for any civilian task.
Another negative stereotype associated with the veterans is than they only follow the set patterns of orders and are too rigid to take initiatives. But in reality, the companies that value creative thinking and extraordinary skills to deal with the unusual problems recruit and hire veterans.
There is also a fear of future deployment that has associated when it is about hiring the veterans. Many employers feel suspicious while hiring veterans because they think if there will be a shortage of staff in military reserve veterans may get calls from them. But in reality, many veterans leave the military voluntarily because they felt like to separate and indulge themselves in civilian jobs that is why there is no ground to fear for employers.
Conclusion
Unemployment among veterans is a big challenge that affects a population in uniform and their family. There is a lot needs to be done to dispel the negative myth and stereotype. Unemployment among veterans is a big challenge. This social hurdle needs to be identified appropriately and further strategic development should be introduced to improve the situation of the veterans presenting themselves to the employers who are looking to hire.
