From Sen. Fontana
Fontana Discusses Employment for Veterans
Veterans should be welcomed home with open arms from family members, but they also face the hurdle of unemployment, Fontana says.
On average, an estimated 250,000 soldiers leave active military duty every year. Just last week, 33,000 surge troops that President Obama ordered to Afghanistan in December 2009 were sent home. This drawdown of United States forces is in keeping with the President’s timetable to pull out all conventional combat forces by the end of 2014. While these soldiers should be welcomed home in the coming days with open arms, many will face a new hurdle resulting from the deep recession: unemployment. Post 9/11 veterans are facing an economic environment unprecedented to drawdown periods of any previous war. For example, in March, the U.S. Labor Department released numbers that showed the unemployment rate for veterans was 12.1 percent whereas …
