Job hunt tough for veterans

Emmanuel Canoy served in the U.S. Army for four years and was released from active duty in December. But when he returned to his Kannapolis home, he was unemployed and has been struggling to find a job.

He headed to the Cabarrus County branch of the North Carolina Division of Employment Security, hoping to get help finding employment. But with so many people unemployed he found it hard to move forward.

“My heart sank actually,” Canoy said. “Because there are a lot of people over there and you are one of them. Unemployment has no boundaries and you still have to wait like everybody else.”

Canoy’s story of being in the military and returning to civilian life only to struggle to find work is a familiar one for some.

More than 20,000 veterans leave military service in North Carolina each year, according to the North Carolina Division of Employment Security. For many of those veterans their first stop is at their local employment security commission office. 

In January there were 2.4 million veterans of the post-9/11 wars and of those 178,000 were unemployed. With so many veterans unemployed, officials have pushed for programs to support those unemployed soldiers and local aid will be provided here Monday.

The Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Cabarrus Economic Development Corporation have partnered with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to host the Hiring our Heroes Job Fair. The job fair will be held from 9 a.m. until noon Monday at the Embassy Suites in Concord. 

Canoy is already planning to attend the event. 

“The job I’m looking for seems hard to get,” Canoy said.

Prior to being deployed in 2007, Canoy worked at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, where he was an orthopedic bedside registered nurse. But during his deployment with the U.S. Army he was a nurse case manager for the Wounded Warrior Project, which aids injured soldiers.

Canoy said his time as a case manager means he’s been away from his job as a registered nurse. 

“Even though there is potentially a job waiting for us when we get back, we’re not trained for that job,” Canoy said.

Kenneth Sellers, a veterans’ employment consultant with the local chapter the Division of Workforce Solutions, N.C. Department of Commerce, said that is a familiar problem. In the past, soldiers who left the military could get a manufacturing job at Pillowtex or Philip Morris USA Inc. But with both of those shutting down since 2003, recently released soldiers have to look elsewhere.

“Textiles were the thing to do,” Sellers said. “We had a lot of manufacturing. People came out of the military and could go into work there. These jobs are not there. Things we were using 20 years ago we are no longer using.”

MILITARY DOWNSIZING

Now, soldiers need a different set of skills to be promised work. That means a lot of soldiers are returning to school for retraining. Officials like Sellers are working with community colleges and other organizations to help soldiers get the training they need to go into another line of work. That could be the medical industry or education, among other careers. 

Training can help, but Sellers said more soldiers will probably be looking for help from the North Carolina Division of Employment Security. He said in January he had more than 140 veterans looking for help. Now, that could be veterans from as far back as the Vietnam War, up to the Iraq War.

Sellers did say he is noticing more and more clients who have been recently released from the military. 

“The numbers are going up as far as most recently separated veterans,” Sellers said. 

Sellers will probably begin to see even more soldiers recently released from the military.

The Pentagon plans to cut 27,000 soldiers and 20,000 Marines by 2015 to save $6 billion in 2015 and 2016, according to a USA Today article.

“There’s a job need for veterans, which includes Iraq and the soldiers and sailors and airmen that came out of Afghanistan,” Sellers said. “Just how much is yet to be determined, because it was just recently that President Obama announced they are going to downsize the military. So it’s too early to know for sure.”

SEEKING AID

While the employment rate for veterans could increase with the news of the military downsizing, organizations are trying to help where they can.

The PenFed Foundation, or the Pentagon Federal Credit Union Foundation, is a national charity dedicated to helping soldiers with financial issues.

Kate Kohler, chief operating officer for PenFed, is a former U.S. Army captain, said she can see the downsizing of the military bringing more clients who need help.

“The solider, sailor, Marine and Coast Guardsmen will be off the front pages and out of the line of sight of the average American,” she said. “I am concerned that our veterans will be forgotten. Downsizing means thousands of military members will go back to their homes in rural America.”

Kohler added that soldiers returning home may not just face the difficulties of unemployment.

“Their hidden injuries — (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury) — may surface in five or 10 years,” she said. “They will be entering communities that may be unprepared for their healthcare needs.”

While those problems may occur down the road, some soldiers will face the immediate struggle of just finding work.

“I believe it will be difficult for veterans to find jobs because the job market is tough for everyone all over the country,” Kohler said. “Veterans aren’t the only ones struggling.”

One organization that is helping military personnel looking to move to civilian life is Orion International. A Cary-based organization, Orion International is a recruiting firm, specializing in placing former military professionals into the civilian workforce. 

Mike Starich, president of Orion International, said the organization has helped provided career transition assistance for more than 86,000 U.S. Army and Marine Corps vets since 2001, and found careers for more than 5,900.

He said the downsizing of the military will make finding jobs for soldiers more difficult.

“There will be more military folks competing for less jobs than say five years ago,” Starich said. “So, in a sense, the competition will go up. Counteracting this current is the push by the government and private industry as well to do their part in hiring military, which hopefully will increase the volume of available job openings.”

LOCAL EFFORTS

With an uneasy economy, job fairs like Monday’s could help many soldiers. 

John Cox, president of the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the job fair is part of ones being held nationwide to help soldiers transitioning from military to civilian life.

“In this economy, companies need to hire effectively,” Cox said. “We are constantly visiting employers in Cabarrus County and they have told us they are having a hard time finding the right employees. We thought this event would do a good job to meet the needs of local employers and experienced military veterans.”

Sellers, from the division of employment security, agreed.

“Employers need someone they feel comfortable with and can turn equipment over to,” Sellers said. “Because you take a young soldier or sailor or airmen, when they go into the military they are immediately given the reigns to millions of dollars worth of equipment. So they’ve got the confidence and skills the can bring back to the employer.”

Contact Michael Knox at 704-789-9133.