Bethpage job fair targets unemployed military veterans

Christopher McGlynn has been in and out of the U.S. military since 1996, serving with the U.S. Army and the New York National Guard.

But finding work and keeping a job have been hard for McGlynn since he left the Guard in 2005.

"To find a $10 or $11-an-hour job is possible," said the Holbrook father, husband and Iraq War veteran. "Trying to locate a job where you're making $40,000 a year with benefits, which you need to support a family on Long Island, that's a challenge."

McGlynn, 38, was one of more than 100 military veterans who interviewed for jobs or sought information about veterans benefits Monday at a jobs fair in Bethpage sponsored by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington).

Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom joined expecting to gain marketable skills while in the service, are finding the job market even tougher to crack than nonveterans, according to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment for all veterans nationwide was 10.2 percent in 2009 - the last year for which complete BLS data is available - compared to 9.3 percent for all American workers. Unemployment information for Long Island veterans could not be determined.

Younger vets are finding it even harder, with more than one in five veterans under 25 unable to find a job last year, according to the most recent BLS figures.

"It's pretty tough," said Trevor Humphries, 23, an Air Force veteran. Humphries, who said he has put out about 30 job applications since June but has found only part-time work, is living with his grandparents in East Northport.

Joyce Barron, a recruiter who attended the jobs fair, said veterans often are emotionally exhausted after coming back from war, making it especially difficult for some of them to organize a job search.

Barron said veterans are often unaware of how to translate skills learned in the service for use in the civilian jobs arena. "A lot come back and say 'I don't know what I want to do, I can't do marksmanship anymore,' " Barron said. "They don't realize their leadership skills are important to promote."

Data show that Iraq and Afghanistan vets are far more likely than nonveterans to work in the public sector. But many veterans find those jobs hard to find as well.

"The jobless rate of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is unacceptably high," Deputy U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Scott Gould told the President's Interagency Council on Veterans Employment during a Sept. 16 briefing in Washington.

McGlynn, who said he was fired from a job in August because war-related anxiety made it hard for him to concentrate, said he is considering joining the service again.

"I may have to go back in to make ends meet," McGlynn said. "I want to make sure my son has what he needs."