Serving in the military has its risks, but every year young men, some of them fresh out of high school, choose to spend some time in the service of their country. Not everyone, however, build a long career with the military; after a couple of years or so, they make the transition back to civilian life.

Unfortunately, based on statistics discussed in a feature on the Navy Times, that transition is not as smooth as one might hope. According to the Labor Department, one in three veterans below the age of 24 is unemployed. The unemployment rate of the veterans from the Iraqi and Afghan wars is 14.7 percent, while the national rate of 9.7 percent.

This is a decline for veterans, according to Justin Brown, a labor expert for Veterans of Foreign Wars, considering that over the past couple of years they were “more likely to be employed” than their non-veteran counterparts.

The theory for this trend is that businesses may be reluctant to hire veterans because of talk of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.

American Legion employment specialist Mark Walker suggest that it will be beneficial to veterans if businesses are assured that despite the existence of PTSD and other injuries, the reality is that veterans “bring special skills and dedication to the job”.

Another issue may be that these veterans still do not have college degrees, and jobs are certainly hard to come by for non-degree holders, unless, of course, they have much-needed skills. One way to address this will be to make improvements in job training and vocational training benefits among young veterans.