Aboard the retired cruise ship Queen Mary -- a World War II veteran redeployed as a tourist attraction -- former members of the armed services Thursday got an extra ration of employment help.
But, between a sagging economy and years of specialized experience, many veterans say they still can't find decent jobs or feel pigeonholed into low-paying fitness, security or law enforcement positions.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday, April 01, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 35 words Type of Material: Correction
Veterans employment: A Business article on poor job prospects for military veterans described the Military Sealift Command as a company. It is part of the Navy and is staffed with federal employees and private contractors.
Behind a table spread with brochures and flanked by posters advertising jobs with Military Sealift Command, a civilian military transportation company, recruiter Sarah Little smiled at passing veterans.
But when they moved on, the happy front vanished. Most of the applicants milling around the Long Beach job fair weren't prepared for the rigorous application process for the seafaring positions she had to offer, Little said.
The struggling domestic job market limits their options even more, she said.
"When I started doing this five years ago, I'd get people who were almost in tears because the outlook was so bad," she said. "Now that desperation seems to be back. These veterans want so badly to go to work, and there's no question that organizations want to hire them. It's just bad timing that the economy is so awful."
The forecast for young veterans seems grim.
Some return to civilian life with physical injuries and psychological damage. Many come back to families that need their financial support, but find that the skills they gained in the military don't carry over to the current job market. Their only options are unstable, entry-level positions.
Recent research by the Department of Veterans Affairs suggests that today's young veterans need more help making the transition to civilian jobs, given that 23% of veterans in 2005 were out of the workforce, up from 10% in 2000.
More than 60% of employers say that veterans need more help to compete with civilian applicants, according to a November survey by Military.com, a division of the job recruitment website Monster.com. Of the 81% of returning service members who reported feeling unprepared for job-hunting, 76% said they didn't know how to turn military skills into civilian positions.
Daniel M. Ortiz, department service director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., says the military misleads young recruits into believing that a stint in the armed forces turns them into attractive job candidates.
