Job Gains on the Rise for Disabled Vets Despite High Inflation

The bad news is that it hasn’t always been easy for vets with physical and emotional disabilities to get good-paying work. Discrimination, even if it wasn’t overt or in your face, ruled the day.

Why hire a disabled vet when you can get a non-disabled worker?

Enter the employment lawyer. Says the Boston, Mass.-based Shapiro Law Group, employment lawyers can concentrate on numerous aspects of employment law. If you decide to hire one, you should know that they will provide guidance and representation to employers and potential employees like disabled military veterans who might find it difficult to nab the job they want.

They also know about state and federal laws, including discrimination and harassment issues, wrongful termination, workplace safety regulations, and more. But the good news is that if you are a disabled vet in 2023, you might not necessarily need help in finding meaningful, well-paying employment, despite an economy that’s facing persistent inflation. According to a new report by Military.com, recent employment stats demonstrate that vets, including disabled vets, have taken full advantage of a robust economy that’s been fueled by the ending of the draconian COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and stay-at-home mandates.

Also, considerable federal funding has contributed to newfound successes not only in the existing job market but for those vets who wish to start their own business ventures. However, the ongoing battle with persistent inflation and skyrocketing fuel prices as the fall season nears could easily place those successes in dire jeopardy.
The employment numbers for nondisabled and disabled vets have been so positive lately that those persons associated with both the Annual Warrior Survey and the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) are said to be “shocked.”

According to the latest survey of close to 20,000 ill, wounded, and injured vets, which represent around 165,000 WWP members and that has been touted as the most inclusive survey of wounded vets in the post 9/11 era, produced data that was far better than every WWP survey conducted since 2010, or so the organization recently reported.
Says WWP, the unemployment rate for disabled vets has always been in double digits. This is due to over three-quarters of them possessing a disability rating of 70 percent with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The latest 2022 survey, however, showed that the unemployment rate had been cut almost in half from a little over 13 percent to around seven percent. A dramatic change, to say the least.

According to a West Point grad and a former Army Lieutenant who now works as WWP’s chief program officer, she is pleasantly surprised at the new employment statistics. She also states that WWP is still trying to figure out how they were able to achieve such a significant drop in unemployment.

One former Army sergeant who is said to have been shot five times while on patrol in Afghanistan’s Patika province back in 2005, said that he believes disabled vets were able to take full advantage of expanded employment opportunities for remote work at their homes just as the U.S. was reemerging from the pandemic. He himself is employed in a remote work job.

The sergeant, who spent two years in hospital before being discharged from the army, endured forty surgeries in an attempt to get the use of his legs back, or so he stated in a new interview with WWP. But with WWP’s Warriors to Work program, he was able to apply for employment at the VA. He took part in their training program and now works as an IT project manager for them.

He claims to be a lucky man since it was his goal to work directly with his fellow wounded veterans.

Low-Paying Jobs Still Remain a Complication

New successes for previously unemployed disabled vets have certainly helped in winning the battle for the disabled veteran unemployment rate. However, many of the jobs they are taking remain low-paying, making it a struggle to keep up with inflationary times. Despite inflation rates having come down a few points, the prices of necessities like food and energy remain high.

Despite having work, many disabled vets are “stressed out financially,” said a WWP representative. The vets are employed but not at the level where they can afford the basics and still put some money away for a rainy day.

The recent WWP survey showed that around 65 percent of the close to 20,000 disabled vets who responded stated they were finding it impossible to make ends meet over the entire course of 2022 and 2023 thus far. Eighty percent said they were experiencing financial hardships despite being gainfully employed.

The U.S. owes a debt of gratitude to its disabled vets. The recent gain in employment is a positive development. But between inflation and low wages, these vets are still fighting a frustrating war with no ending in sight.