Returning LI vets find joblessness the norm

Mike Donohue served a year in Iraq as a member of the National Guard and came home to Medford in 2008. Despite training as a mechanic, Donohue, 43, has yet to land a full-time job.

The same for Matt Foster, who also served a year in Iraq with the same National Guard unit as Donohue, and also came home, to Farmingville, in 2008. Foster, 29, has a master's degree in education, and despite that, can't find a job, either.

"If there's a maintenance job that pays well, there's 600 applicants for it," Donohue said. "I'm now long-term unemployed."

Both attended a panel session at Farmingdale State College Tuesday organized by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who wanted to highlight the problems of a growing number of unemployed veterans on Long Island and across the country, and she also wanted to seek ideas about how to help them find jobs.

"The least we can do is help them [veterans] provide for their families when they come home," said the New York Democrat, who is soon to take a seat on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.

But the problems are deep, she said. While the U.S. unemployment rate has fallen to about 9 percent, unemployment among young veterans -- ages 18 to 24 -- is 22 percent nationwide. On Long Island, Gillibrand said, about 950 out of 6,300 veterans -- 15 percent -- who have served since the 9/11 terror attacks are out of work.

Gillibrand said she is working on several solutions, including establishing a Veterans Business Center Program within the U.S. Small Business Administration to provide training and counseling.

Business leaders, military officers and others discussed the issue for over an hour, with all voicing support. But, Gillibrand concluded, too many are working too independently of one another.

"We have great organizations doing great work," she said. "But we don't coordinate at all."

She would be back, she said, for more work.