Big dip in unemployment rate for young veterans

The jobless rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans fell dramatically in June despite an overall economy that produced few jobs and left the national unemployed rate unchanged.

The unemployment rate for Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans fell to 9.5 percent, down from 12.7 percent the previous month and from 13.3 percent in June 2011, according to the employment situation report released Friday by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For veterans of all generations, the June jobless rate was 7.4 percent, a slight improvement over the 7.8 percent rate for May.

The national unemployment rate remains 8.2 percent in a sour economy that produced just 80,000 jobs last month.

Young vets unemployment rates

The unemployment rate for post-2001 veterans for the six months prior to June:

• May 2012: 12.7 percent.

• April 2012: 9.2 percent.

• March 2012: 10.3 percent.

• February 2012: 7.6 percent.

• January 2012: 9.1 percent.

• December 2011: 13.3 percent.

Big month-to-month changes in veterans’ unemployment can be the result of statistical flukes because the Labor Department’s monthly report is based on a survey of about 200,000 people, of whom just 22,000 are veterans. The June survey included just 2,600 people who left active duty since Sept. 11, 2001, to draw conclusions about the jobless rate for the newest generation of veterans.

Still, the statistical improvement comes amidst a continuing expansion of federal and private-sector programs aimed at helping veterans get jobs.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Chamber of Commerce jointly sponsored a hiring fair in Detroit last week that officials said resulted in 1,300 job offers going to veterans, and there are plans to hold similar events in other locations.

VA also announced Tuesday that it is helping veteran-owned small businesses by exceeding its own goal for purchasing goods and services from veteran- and disabled veteran-owned firms. More than 18 percent of procurement dollars went to disabled veteran-owned businesses, exceeding the goal of 10 percent set by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, and 20 percent went to veteran-owned businesses, exceeding the goal of 12 percent, VA officials said.

A series of grants also have been announced to encourage hiring veterans. For example, the Transportation Department announced Monday that it is awarding grants to improve transportation access so that veterans and their families could reach jobs.

Just before the report was released, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America announced a new partnership with New York’s Lincoln Center for Performing Arts that will provide “fast track” hiring procedures for veterans to fill a variety of jobs at the center. The partnership also involves providing free tickets for veterans and their families to some events.

More programs are coming.

More than 25,000 unemployed veterans, aged 35 to 60, have signed up to take part in the first phase of a two-year job training program, the Veterans Reemployment Assistance Program or VRAP, that provides one year of monthly GI Bill benefits to those enrolled in education or vocational training programs that should qualify them at the end for a job in a high-demand skills.

There is still room in the program, which can sign up 45,000 veterans now and another 54,000 veterans beginning in October.

VA: 1,300 vets get job offers at Detroit event

A Detroit jobs fair resulted in 1,300 veterans receiving job offers and more than 5,500 getting job interviews, the Veterans Affairs Department reported — the kind of success the department is looking for as it considers holding similar events in other cities.

Upcoming VA job fairs

• Colorado Springs: July 12
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• Minneapolis: Aug. 2
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• Houston: Aug. 9
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• San Diego: Sept. 6
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• San Antonio: Sept. 13
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• Cincinnati: Sept. 20
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• Chicago: Sept. 27
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• Tampa: Oct. 4

The three-day event, which ended June 28, was a partnership involving VA, the Chamber of Commerce and first lady Michelle Obama’s Joining Forces initiative. It brought 260 private-sector companies and government agencies together in one place to try to help veterans land jobs.

In a statement, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said veterans were helped in “many different ways.”

“Many received job offers, others received access to the health care and benefits they have earned, while others received information that will help them build their business,” he said.

Similar events are planned in more cities, VA officials said.

In addition to job interviews, VA provided health care screenings, with 3,500 veterans referred for care and 140 veterans receiving medical or dental exams. Additionally, 2,100 veterans signed up for online notifications about benefits and programs.

Group to DoD: Revisit Purple Heart for PTSD

The National Alliance on Mental Illness, a mental health advocacy group, is calling on the Defense Department to award Purple Hearts for post-traumatic stress disorder.

In a report published Thursday, the group urged DoD to recognize those who suffer PTSD or other mental health injuries resulting from combat exposure by awarding the Purple Heart “with the same level of appreciation and recognition as those awarded to warriors with visible wounds.”

Arguing that PTSD and other mental health issues such as depression can be war-related injuries, the group said the department has an obligation to honor personnel.

“NAMI is drawing a line in the sand with the Department of Defense,” said Executive Director Michael Fitzpatrick. “Troops with invisible wounds are heroes. It’s time to honor them. It will also strike a tremendous blow against the stigma that often discourages individuals from seeking help when they need it.”

The Pentagon in 2009 decided not to award the Purple Heart to troops with PTSD because the disorder can be difficult to diagnose, and symptoms can arise later in life not linked necessarily to any one action or an enemy.

The Purple Heart is given specifically to those who receive injuries resulting from enemy engagement requiring treatment by a medical officer.

In cases of concussion and mild traumatic brain injury where a service member may not have immediately recognized his or her injury and was not treated by medical personnel, a Purple Heart may be awarded if a medical officer later certifies the injury would have required treatment if a physician were available.

An ongoing debate in the medical and psychology communities focuses on whether combat-related PTSD could be the result of an undetected physical injury, like microscopic brain changes resulting from exposure to a blast wave; other outside influences or the physiological or hormonal overload of stress; or a psychological reaction to trauma exposure.

The Pentagon concluded that more research was needed in the field of brain science before deciding to award the Purple Heart for PTSD.

In the report “Parity for Patriots,” the alliance also said DoD should “forcibly end discrimination associated with invisible wounds of war” by requiring military leaders to focus on reducing stigma associated with mental health treatment and hold them accountable for suicides in their commands.

“Suicides are preventable just as are the heat and cold injuries of service members for which leaders are routinely relieved of command,” the report states.

The Veterans Affairs Department and the general public also must do their part in supporting veterans with behavioral health concerns, the organization argues.

The group called on the Veterans Health Administration to expand its treatment options by using already existing community health networks and private practitioners, and it urged the public to “reach out, listen and care.”

“Give veterans rides, watch their children or grant them extra time off work in order to make it possible for them to get treatment,” Fitzpatrick suggested.

VA care extended to Camp Lejeune water victims

Congressional negotiators have taken a big leap in expanding veterans’ health care by proposing Veterans Affairs Department treatment for veterans and dependents exposed to contaminated well water at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Up to 750,000 people — Navy and Marine Corps members and their families — may have been exposed to water found to be contaminated by carcinogens from the 1950s into the 1980s.

North Carolina lawmakers have been pushing for years for the federal government to cover health costs for people who were exposed, but there have been sharp disagreements about who should be responsible: the Defense Department, which owned the base, or VA, which covers service-connected illness, injury and disability.

This is a big step because VA provides very little health care for dependents, concentrating on veterans rather than their families. But it is not unprecedented.

Those covered must have lived or worked on Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days from Jan. 1, 1957 through Dec. 31, 1987.

VA ends up with responsibility under terms of a compromise reached June 21 between members of the House and Senate veterans’ affairs committees on a comprehensive veterans bill made up of provisions that have passed at least one of the committees over the past two years.

The compromise bill is expected to pass the Senate as early as next week and could be on its way to the White House by the Fourth of July, according to congressional staffers.

The agreement is a victory for Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who has been pushing the veterans affairs committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee to get help for the former Lejuene residents.

“I am pleased this legislation has moved further than ever before, and I am hopeful it will receive the attention of the full Senate very soon,” Burr said. “The Marines, sailors, and their families who were affected by exposures to toxic water at Camp Lejeune deserve this care, and I hope this bill will finally pass so we can provide it for them.”

It’s also a victory Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairwoman, and for Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., her House counterpart, for reaching a compromise that sweeps up a large pack of abandoned legislation.

In a statement, Miller said the comprehensive bill, HR 1627, is the result of months of compromise.

“This bill includes nearly 50 provisions, which combines House-passed legislation and Senate Committee-reported bills,” he said, adding that veterans organizations also provided input.

He called it a “fiscally responsible” bill that “will not cost the taxpayer an extra dime.” Costs are covered by extensions of fees on veterans home loans and other adjustments. Full details were not yet available on offsets, but congressional aides who worked on the compromise said no benefits are cut and no services are canceled to pay for any of the provisions in the bill.

Among them:

• Allow waiver of copays for veterans receiving telehealth and telemedicine visits, a change aimed at encouraging veterans who live far from a VA clinic or hospital to use the service.

• Require comprehensive reporting and tracking of sexual assaults and safety problems, an idea taken from a bill sponsored in 2011 by Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-N.Y., after unreported or underreported sexual assaults were discovered on VA property, including in hospitals.

• Allow service dogs, when trained by an accredited agency or organization, onto any VA-owned or -controlled property.

• Permanently authorize adjustable-rate mortgages and hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages under the VA home loan program, options that might be especially attractive to home buyers because of low mortgage interest rates.

• Make VA-backed loans available to some surviving spouses. This would apply to survivors of a totally disabled veteran who had been receiving disability compensation for at least 10 years or who died within five years of leaving active duty. It also would apply to survivors of former prisoners of war who had been totally disabled for at least one year prior to their deaths.

• Codify in law the prohibition against reserving gravesites at Arlington National Cemetery and prohibit more than one gravesite from being provided to a veteran or service member.