WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Often the biggest hurdle for veterans back home is finding a way to translate their skills into a job or career. Making this task even more difficult is coupling that job with good finance management.

Unemployment numbers for veterans are either at or near all-time lows. The unemployment rate across all generations is currently at 3.9 percent. This is the lowest it has been since April 2008, said George Altman, a senior writer with the Military Times.

The number gets a little higher for post-9/11 veterans, at 4.6 percent. Even so, that’s the lowest number ever recorded for that generation. That’s also down from the rate in January 2011, when it was at an all-time high of 15.2 percent.

“A lot of these guys were coming out around the worst of the recession,” explained Altman. He says veterans naturally get more attuned to civilian life over time.

Dan Goldenberg, Executive Director of the Call of Duty Endowment, said veterans who have given up searching for work or who work infrequent part-time jobs don’t count as unemployed.

The goal for him isn’t to just put veterans in jobs but also start them on a career path.

According to Goldenberg, about 85 percent of veterans are “good to go.” But it’s not so much physical barriers that hold them back, he explained, but rather, perceptual ones.

“Will this person only be able to follow orders? Will they have a creative bone in their body? Will they engage in some type of workplace violence?” posed Goldenberg. “These are ridiculous stereotypes, but they’re out there.”

Goldenberg said that data from Fortune 500 companies actually shows that veterans make better than average employees in terms of productivity adn retention.

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