Jessica harper Laura Adelmann T.w. Budig
Ecolab cuts 50 Eagan jobs 2A Residential property values drop 2A Legislature passes school payback bill 6A
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date ##, 2009 April 5, 2012
Volume 33, 30, NUMBER Number 6 # VOLUME
Dakota County Tribune Since 1884
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Veterans come Home to work?
inside biz forum
mark ritchie
Civilian job market proves tough to crack as clock ticks for Apple Valley couple by John Gessner
DAkota County Tribune
Sam Root’s service in the U.S. Army — the Guard, the Reserve and active duty — has spanned 21 years. Now the gig is up. Sam has been without a military paycheck since last October, and he’s retiring in August, when his last six-year enlistment expires. “I figured 21 years was a pretty good run,” said the 38-year-old Apple Valley resident, who can’t imagine continuing in the military after a hernia operation and surgery on his left shoulder and left knee. Sam and his wife, Mindy, 33 — a fellow Guard
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Voters should vote ‘no’ on proposed constitutional amendment to preserve the ability to register on Election Day. 4A
forum
U.S. senator and Yellow Medicine County commissioner agree on need for workforce investment. al 4A franken
veteran he met while both were training for deployment to Iraq — aren’t completely unprepared for this fallow period, when both lack full-time work and the couple’s second child is on the way. forum But the clock is ticking on the full-time job that You can live the Roots say at least one of without a local them needs to land. newspaper, but Sam said he’s applied for why would you want to miss the nearly 50 jobs and landed information in only two interviews, one for Sun Thisweek. a janitor position. tad And the $197-a-month 5A johnson military insurance that covers Sam, Mindy, their son, dakota arts Photo by John Gessner Alton, nearly 2, and Sam’s Sam, holding a camera phone, and Mindy Root of Apple Valley, pictured with their Local woman two children from a previ- son, Alton, are both veterans re-entering the civilian job market at the same time. this week news checksStats:one item off Code Type: UPC Version A 0 See Civilian, Page 8A Mindy is expecting their second child. Customer: 3242-ECM Publishers her “bucket list”
A veteran’s search for a job Local organizations available to help
by Aaron Vehling
DAkota County Tribune
In the three months he has been unemployed, Lt. Col. Bruce Jensen, 44, of Lakeville, has sent out more than 50 applications, has had five phone interviews and has been Photo submitted invited for two in-person Bruce Jensen of Lakeville (right) has been looking for interviews. a job for three months. He is pictured here with General Jensen has been in the Raymond Odierno, who was head of the United States’ Iraq military for 20 years, half War operation and is currently the Army Chief of Staff. of that on active duty. He
returned to the United States in November 2010 from a tour in Iraq to find a fork in the road: Stay in active duty and be sent to North Carolina or transition to civilian life and be a part of his young daughters’ lives on a daily basis. He chose the latter. It took another year to transition from active duty to the National Guard. “That was a family
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decision,” he said. “They need their father in their lives.” Unemployment has been frustrating, Jensen said, but he is “not ready to throw in the towel just yet.” The unemployment rate for veterans who served post-9/11 was 12.1 percent in 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau
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Employment Resource Team deploys to Kuwait to help Rosemount-based Red Bulls by Tad Johnson
DAkota County Tribune
The last thing on the minds of U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan should be whether they have a job waiting for them when they return home. But for many returning veterans the inability to find work is a pervasive problem.
It is estimated that the Minnesota unemployment rate is 6.4 to 7.4 percent higher among post Sept. 11, 2001, veterans, which prompted a first-of-its kind Employment Resource Team to deploy this month to Kuwait, where the Rosemount-based 34th Red Bull Infantry Division is outfit-
ted. Jim Finley, veterans employment services director for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), said the effort was a way to get ahead of the curve for the estimated 20 percent of the 2,700 soonto-be returning Minnesota
veterans who don’t have a job waiting for them. Organized by the Minnesota National Guard, the program helped his office, which provides intensive services to about 4,000 veterans annually, to prepare for the influx of unemployed veterans. Finley said the program
planned to connect with about 550 Minnesota service members over five days, but it ended up reaching 1,100 troops from 10 different states. A majority of those veterans are in their early 20s and don’t have much work experience beyond their military service.
“The Red Bulls is an infantry division,” Finley said. “Because of the nature of their work and that they are younger soldiers, we see that high unemployment rate. “They may not have had a job when they were deployed,” Finley said. “A number of them left See Employment, Page 35A