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Jim Seida / msnbc.com
Hermes Corcuera, seen here with his wife Amber, in Gig Harbor, Wash., spent six months in Iraq and a year in Korea during his five years of military service. Now he's looking for a new career.
Hermes Corcuera joined the military because he wanted to give back to a country that has given him so much.
But now that he’s done his duty, the 25-year-old Cuban immigrant is finding himself in a position that could be familiar to many soldiers in the coming months and years: Out of the military, and out of a job.
The move to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and potentially cut military spending significantly over the next 10 years is translating into pocketbook worries for many military families.
"For a lot of individuals, it's going to be very difficult, especially if they have families," said Joe Sharpe, director of economics for The American Legion, one of the most prominent veterans services organizations.
A new survey finds that middle-class military families are more likely to be setting stringent savings and spending goals this year, as the military gears up for some major cost-cutting of its own.
The First Command Financial Behaviors Index, which tracks the finances of families with income of $50,000 or more, found that 49 percent of military families were planning to cut back on excessive spending in 2012, compared with 42 percent of nonmilitary families.
In addition, 47 percent of military families said their goals for 2012 included getting out of debt, compared with 38 percent of nonmilitary families. The military families who responded to the monthly survey also were more likely to say they planned to do things like learn to budget responsibly and improve their credit scores.
First Command also found that just one in four of the military families they surveyed think there are enough jobs out there for unemployed veterans.
Corcuera, who immigrated to the United States as a young child, said he is glad to have been in the military.
"It is a very rewarding job,” he said. “I get to serve my country.”
After training as an interrogator and community liaison, Corcuera spent six months in Iraq and a year in Korea. A Specialist E4, he was most recently stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington state.
He said he enjoyed the work.
“It’s another way of saving lives,” he said.
But as the military works to withdraw troops from the Gulf, he said there was not nearly as much need for interrogators and community liaisons. Although he was offered the option to re-enlist, he said the available jobs would have been a step down from his current position, and a foot injury left him ineligible for some of the available positions.
He left the military on Jan. 4, after five years of service.
He is applying for police department jobs, but he said it will likely be months before he hears back. He said many of his colleagues are looking at contract intelligence jobs, but he would rather be a police officer because he likes the idea of working with the community.
“I want a stable career, and for a family that seems like the best option,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said his initial claim for unemployment benefits was declined so he’s sorting out the paperwork for that.
His wife Amber, 31, is hoping she can pick up more personal training work to keep the family afloat until Hermes lands a job. She said the couple, who have two children from Amber’s previous marriage, didn’t have much time to prepare financially for the change.
They are especially nervous about keeping up on their bills because they know a ding in their credit score could affect Hermes’ job prospects.
“We’ve done some things that save us a little bit of money, (but) all in all it’s just a matter of, ‘Hey, I guess we’re broke now,’” Amber said.
The couple said they don’t think they could afford for Hermes to go to school, even with military aid, because they need income to support the family. Amber said they’re struggling to figure out what other options and support systems are out there for veterans.
“As long as you’re in the military, it’s a great career to have. But because it’s a lifestyle rather than just a job, when you’re out, you’re out,” Amber said. “There aren’t a lot of avenues, realistically, for a military person to take.”
Such worries are legitimate, said Sharpe of the American Legion.
Sharpe noted that the unemployment rate for veterans of the most recent Gulf war efforts is already quite high at 13.1 percent. The comparable, non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the general population is 8.3 percent.
Sharpe expects joblessness among veterans to become an even bigger problem now that the military has withdrawn from Iraq and is working to reduce its presence in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the military is being asked to reduce defense spending by $487 billion over 10 years as part of the government’s effort to keep the deficit in check. The tight federal budgets also may mean that there are fewer government jobs available to veterans, Sharpe said.
Sharpe also said military personnel don’t necessarily have the certifications or other training they need to do private sector jobs that are similar to their military training. And although the nation's employment picture is improving, the competition for jobs is fierce.
“It’s going to be extremely difficult,” Sharpe said.
Sharpe is also a reservist at Fort Bragg, N.C., and he said many of the troops he serves with are worried about potential cutbacks. Some are putting off big expenses like a new car and others are planning to use their tax refunds to pay down debt. He said some are even stocking up on items they can get more cheaply at the commissary in preparation for leaving the military.
“There seems to be a wave of panic going through the military community there at Fort Bragg,” he said.
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They served, and now they search for work
Leave a Comment:
Okay, first things first, military pay will not be cut. If anything the annual raise will be alot less than usual. Second, as SMA Chandler pointed out in his recent travels around the Army. If you are not performing at the highest level you could find yourself on the street. Personally, I think the issue is the tax free pay that families get used to frying up due to less deployments.
The Army is job security for those that constantly exceed the standard.
And not just exceed the standards, but merely maintain them and you can be successful in the military.
I see lots of people on here saying they deserve this and that because they did not reenlist. It is not that simple. Most people do not realize that you have to be invited to reenlist by being eligible. You have to have your time in grade, pass your tests, etc. Your branch has to have a spot for you to fill, etc. It is not entirely different from the civilian world except as a civilian your job offer doesn't usually expire every four years so you need to be invited back and have your qualifications checked. You don't just get to walk into an office and demand your job again for the next four years.
You're right and even after you explain that to them so many still believe it was a walk in the park. I have been retired now 12 yrs and i have not moved once at first it was weird but i am getting used to it. It was real it was fun but i will not lie and say it was real fun except for maybe Hawaii i do not count those years but i am glad that Uncle Sugar does.
I don't understand this... The headline and the story do not match at all! The idiot that decided to not to re-up was worried about having to find a job? Seems if he wanted to be a police officer he should have applied sooner if it was going to take months. One guy's leaving the military voluntarily has nothing to do with pentagon cutbacks affecting the pocketbook of any service member. MSNBC is definately starting to show it's Comcast influence that's too bad.
It seems that the Guns or Butter model of economics is coming into being full force.
Great response Buck
Typical Democrat president. Destroy military personnel lives and bail out failed union plants.
first of all, just one week before President Obama announced that he would cut back on military spending he signed a bill that would put an additional 660 billion into the military. So I'd say that aught to keep in 500 dollar hammers for a while. Just look it up.
sounds like the food stamp president to me.
Being in the military should never be considered a lifelong job. Conflicts end, wars end hopefully for good and those in the military are confusing being in the military as their lifelong means of support. Many people join the military because there are no real job opportunities in the communities they live in. Most areas of the country that have high enlistment rates are economically depressed areas and this is a way out of poverty for some, but expecting to continue to fight these endless, illegal wars I believe personally to be some sort of magincal thinking on the part of those who enlist. If these wars were an aggressive attack on our homeland is one thing, but to put your life at risk for wars that make no sense, accomplish nothing but death and destruction and result in those coming back with chronic health concerns including PTSD to me is absurd. I lost my cousin Joe in Vietnam at 19 and for what. His life was cut short because he was drafted to fight in an illegal war, we could never have won and no one even seems to this day to know why we were there to begin with other than to meddle in the problems of other nations who in no way threatened our security. The old fart neocons like John McCain and the corrupt politicians who get us into these conflicts don't suffer the end result. Eisenhower himself said we should be wary of the MIC and the powers they weild. He was right, but apparently no one was listening.
Yup, who needs a trained military ready to fight? Let everyone sit at home and than do a draft if it becomes necessary. Ask whoever is attacking our defenseless country if they would mind waiting 6 months to a year so we can get ready and trained. Brilliant.
Holy cow! Loss of defense money means that the south will get less of our tax dollars. The south that gets more then they pay into the federal government and then yells about government spending. Two faced.
I kept saying this over and over and it didn't take long to happen.
Obama "brought" the troops back too soon and bribed Iraq to say they were not needed.
He did this purely for effect for votes.
ALL of our troops since 1973 have volunteered to serve, for country AND paycheck.
Now they will all come home and join the rest in "Obama Land" in the unemployment lines.
Some will get lucky and be able to be selected for re-enlistment, most will not.
Some will bump a loyal civil service employee for position (the early retirement and RIF notices are already out).
Some of these troops didn't WANT to come home.
All of this for a lousy vote.
Sure we don't want troops in harms way, but we all volunteered.
I did it for 33 years.
And the pay was good.
viewer, Obama didn't bring the troops back too soon. He brought them back in accordance with the SOFA agreement that was agreed to by Bush. They are coming home, but they are not being discharged. There are zero RIF notices out for civil service employees, that is a lie.
Really? And do you have a family member in civil service like I do who just got the notices?
And YES they will be discharged in order to fall in line with the military reductions.
YOU have been told lies.
I am career military AND civil service I KNOW what I am talking about Jr.
Yes, both my wife and I are in civil services and no RIF is planned. and I am also a career military and civil service, and my wife works in HR, so I damned sure know what I am talking about. The military is also not planning a RIF, and will cut through attrition.
raddave, get ready.
Your RIF is on the way dude.
If they had a union they would have a clause that states no layoffs until all contractors are laid off first.
Total bull@!$%#, just like the in DC, Yes they are having cut backs.....but it wont be materials, bullets, tanks, planes, generals, merenary's ect ect that feel it. It will be the middle class soldiers. They will take a pay cut, insurance cut, and pension cut.
Soldiers will not get a pay cut.
reddave if you are still in and they are telling you that, you are being lied to.
If (which you might be) a recruiter, you have been trained to lie.
It will be lower ranking soldiers in the Army and Marines probably and then everyone will be concerned if the same ground soldiers are needed again. Seems to me it would make more sense to reduce the Navy and Air Force, Corps of Engineers, private employees and Civil Service. Ground troops should be kept at good strengths.
Soldiers have never gotten a pay cut. They might not receive a big raise, or may be frozen, but will not get a pay cut.
No, Yank the ground forces are the ones not needed and can be accumulated pretty quick.
You can teach just about anyone to shoot, drive and throw grenades.
The Navy and the Air Force are high tech, (the other branches are too) and it
is paramount to retain the experience there.
If war breaks out the Navy and Air Force can settle most of these problems in a few days.
Ground troops on the other hand are not so much needed these days.
These are the troops who will suffer the most from these cutbacks.
I will agree with you on the paycut issue reddave.
But the big issue here is re-enlistment.
Viewer, I went through the Bush 41 draw down, and still work for the Army. The only people being denied re-enlistment, are the ones that can't meet the standards, overweight, PT failures, coming up hot on pee tests, DWIs. If, you can meet the standards, you have no problem re-enlisting.
reddave, then you above ALL people should know that they will look for any, ANY excuse not to re-up you.
Believe what you want, but I am watching it happening now.
That is what this article is all about.
After eight years of failed Bush economic policies, everyone in the U.S., except the six-digit-plus earners, are feeling the pain. The members of the military can still count on tax free purchases at DoD commissaries and exchanges, a perk the rest of us would never dream about.
Its funny how we expect our soldiers to put their lives on the line for us, but when they come home they are not guaranteed a good paying job, talk about using people, this is ridiculously pitiful of us.
Less than 1 percent of Americans put on a uniform and vow to die for thier country. A significant portion of them come home in mental and physical conditions that alters and prevents them from moving forward with thier lives like thier peers. IF they come home at all. You cannot compare this to a regular job, thats absurd.
Less than 1 percent make it so that the rest of the 99% can live the American dream unperturbed by the reality and horrors of world politics and war. So that you can stay home, get your degrees, make your corporate billions.
And this is who you want to stick it too? The few who have sacrificed thier mental and physical well being, and quite often thier lives?
My advice: DO NOT JOIN, your country does not care about you or for you. You will be treated as a disposable commodity. Look at the pay and benefits for just about any other government jobs- especially law enforcement. Thats where you get the golden ticket in pay and benefits. The government can and does provide these tremendous packages, just not to the military. No point of putting your life, your well being and your family at such risk for the comparative peanuts of Military pay and benefits.
Eventually the country will have to re-enstate the draft system. I would love to see what happens to pay and benefits then and how much well to do families would be squirming and whining about putting thier precious, ivy league bound children on a front line.
There are jobs the United States government could make available to thousands if not hundreds of thousands of former veterans immediately if they really wanted to. Those jobs are to be found on our border with Mexico. The border with Mexico is as porous as a sieve. Mexican drugs cartels are moving drugs and illegals across our border with regularity in spite of the increased vigilance that has been provided in recent years. But the government has not grasped this idea because it costs money they do not wish to spend. What better way to reward these men and women who have put their lives on the line time and time again in Iraq and or Afghanistan than to reward them with employment defending our own border with Mexico and STOPPING ONCE AND FOR ALL the hated practice of running drugs across the border to fulfill the demands of 28,000,000 addicted users. Call you state representatives and put forward this idea. Don't ask them, tell them to get this done. We own it to these young soldiers for all they have done on behalf of this great nation. The nation is great because of the average Americans that sustain it. Our elected representatives sadly are not behaving as representatives to the electorate they should be serving anymore. Tell em get this done on a bi partisan basis or start looking for another job come November! Enough of this insane behavior in Washington D.C.!
Here's how it went down.
If you follow current events it would be obvious to you already.
Iraq wanted the US to stay longer, the Obama administration "talked" them out of it.
The troops get pulled right prior to election time.
Two months later a BIG reduction in military is announced.
Troops come home and are already being denied re-enlistment.
Civil service workers are being RIFed (reduction in force) "shuffled and eliminated".
Civil service workers are getting early retirement notices.
Military contractors are being told they cannot renegotiate contracts for "services".
It's all a smoke screen to make Obama look great for the common idiot.
Iraq never wanted us to stay longer, that is a bald face lie. The troops got pulled out, when they were scheduled to, by the SOFA. this "BIG" reduction was announced by Gates when he was SecDef. The only troops being "denied" re-enlsitment are the ones who can't maintain the minimum standards. Civil service is NOT being RIFed, another bald faced lie. They are encouraging Civil service employees to take early retirement, they are not forcing anyone to take it.
raddave, you must be a real rookie in the field.
I do NOT create boldface lies by the way.
The "minimum" standards will be reduced.
You are not "guaranteed" re-enlistment even if your standards are high.
And the offers of early retirement are the first stages of RIF.
Thanks for not knowing what you are talking about.
Viewer offers of early retirement are not a RIF, nor or they the "first stages" of a RIF.
I think you mean the "minimum standards" will be increased, not reduced. I have never known any soldier being denied re-enlistment if they were squared away, and that is including the three years I served as the re-enlistment NCO for my Squadron.
The only place that is discussing a possible RIF, in the Department of the Army is in IMCOM positions at Fort Hood, because of mismanagement, many IMCOM agencies, overhired above what their TDAs called for. The IMCOM commander has ordered all installations that they must be at their TDA authorizations by the end of this FY. Here at my installation, they were able to meet this requirement, by moving employees to authorized positions, and through attrition.
One way to help the military members who might lose their place in the military due to cutbacks is to do this.
All of the aging military machines, planes, tanks, ect. that just sit around never being used but still require maintenance and servicing need taken to the scrap yard. Those in the military whose jobs are being cut would be put into positions of scrapping the old war machines of the American military.
Once the cost of maintening the old war machines is gone the money spent on their upkeep would be used to support such service members and their families by putting them through college to train them for another position within the military even if that position is not within their current MOS or military branch that they are serving with.
These military service members could actually be put to good use in the war against drugs where man power is limited......thus problem solved.
This is already being done.
The AF boneyard in Arizona is one such example.
It is ran by civil service employees.
If you REALLY want to help the military then do away with contract services.
No more rent-a-cops at the gates.
No more non-military cooks in chow halls.
This will not happen because the rank structure for pay in the military is outmoded.
You can't have an E-5 cook making as much as an E-5 Aircraft Mechanic.
Currently this is how it works.
The military is being cut back by Obama ...next month, to save money , they're switching from metal helmets to turbans.
At last people are starting to say what I've felt for years but when I did I was "unpatriotic"! I am former USMC (4 years in the 70's) and have NEVER availed myself of any benefit other than a VA loan for a home. I have been married to the same great woman for nearly 39 yrs and employed for nearly 35 yrs by a great employer and look forward to a few years more. ANYONE can and should adjust to civilian life after the military. There will be those exceptions coming back from combat areas that MAY have problems and need further care. We owe them that much. However, I feel that our military has been put on such a high platform that now many feel entitled to be at the trough. They should get their finances in order just as any prudent civilian would and get ready to face the "real" world. They did a great job and continue to do so and we will ALWAYS be thankful of that. But, life goes on for everyone and it's not always "fair". Good luck on the transition!
You seem to forget that not everyone did thier 4 and got out. What of those who did 20 plus years? And can not find employment because of service related disabilities. And those who continue to need medical care because of those disabilities. You did 4 years, came back unscathed, and got back into the civilian life with a slight delay compared to your peers. Now you have your health and a livable retirement package. Lucky you. Not everyone had it so good, but pat yourself on the back for being such a tough cookie and don't think beyond your own experience. And join the ranks of those who would simply flush broken veterans down the crapper and out of sight. So much for your "brothers", huh?
This is what the United States government is saying to these veterans of foreign war, "Thanks for serving your country in time of war, and now go screw yourselves." Can you imagine this guy who opted out of the military being turned down for unemployment compensation? Talk about getting screwed, blued, and tattoed!!!!!!
Oh please! Everyone is in the same boat
What makes the "military" so special?
Poor guys, they don't get to carry guns, shoot pasers by, and pee on dead bodies.
Go get a REAL education, and find a job INVENTING something useful.
they should give them job's at our boarders all over the country they are already trained for it and we could use the help getting the bastards out of here then just maybe we could take our country back ................
marky you are a true dick face and must be one of those dot heads buying up all of the gas stations in our country
The military is not a jobs program....
The last time the Military did a draw down unemployment spiked and it took over a decade to recover. It will take much longer this time.
Is this all Obama's fault as some would have us believe? No, it is all the politicians fault both parties, ALL Of Them.
The Military trains soldiers to do jobs but as always they fail to provide them with the certifications that Civilian counter parts get to do the same job. They can do the job and they are very proficient because of all the hands on practice they get doing the task but HR people won't take the time to read a resume or actually look at Military conversions. The bad part about that is the conversion is already printed for them in a nice little book or available on line. Imagine how frustrating it is to have someone tell you that after 15 years of being a supervising Sergeant in charge of a warehouse facility or Millions of dollars in equipment and one to two hundred personnel working at the facility that you are not qualified to work as a shift manager or supervisor over 30 personnel doing the same job.
In the Military I was in charge of 110 personnel working on personnel assignments and was told by an HR office I didn't have the experience to work in HR because I didn't have a degree. That is a joke to say the least. I've forgotten more about personnel management and evaluations than she ever knew or could ever get in a college classroom.