The unemployment rate among younger veterans continues to outpace the share of out-of-work civilians with nearly one in 10 ex-service members from the Iraq and Afghanistan eras hunting for jobs, according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Younger male veterans are dragging a collective unemployment rate of 9 percent, compared to 7.6 percent in February 2012. Younger female veterans, who have faced far stiffer challenges grabbing civilian paychecks, posted an unemployment rate of 11.6 percent last month versus 7.4 percent at this time last year, the BLS said. 

In raw numbers, 203,000 post-9/11 veterans were unemployed in February. One year ago that number totaled 154,000. Their overall unemployment rate was 9.4 percent in February. The U.S. unemployment rate last month was 7.7 percent, the Labor Department reports.

“The problem of veteran unemployment should be seen as a national disgrace,” said Cleve Geer, national commander of AMVETS, a nonprofit veterans' organization.

Many of those men and women possess — literally — battle-hardened skills, if not the ability to work under fire, yet some employers seem unable or unwilling to transfer those strengths into civilian jobs, veterans groups say.

“It’s hard for me to believe that a guy can drive a truck in combat but he can’t drive one on the highways. I mean, what the hell is that all about?” said John E. Hamilton, commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “You’ve got a (medical) corpsman out there in field with Marines doing everything short of open-heart surgery but he can’t be an EMT when he gets home. Are you kidding me?”

Yet the veteran-jobless rate soon may spike as sequestration forces federal agencies to hack budgets.

“That's definitely sending shockwaves around our community,” said Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq War veteran and founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonprofit advocacy group representing more than 200,000 members.

“One third of our members work in government some place. A lot are at the TSA, the Pentagon, and Homeland Security, working as civilians,” Rieckhoff said. “We also have a lot working in the contracting space.”

'Everybody's worried'
Among the 20 U.S. companies that hire and retain the most veterans — as ranked by G.I. Jobs — seven of those businesses cater strongly or even entirely to military personnel or federal agencies, including Booz Allen, a management consulting firm that holds contracts with the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation.

“Those (contracting) jobs for veterans are definitely going to be cut back some,” said Bob Tanner, a federally employed systems analyst and former Marine corporal who served in Iraq. He was unemployed from August 2006 until February 2007 after leaving the military. “There’s still a huge gap (in veteran-versus-civilian employment). But I think that gap is going to continue to grow if there’s a lot of layoffs.”

Added Rieckhoff: “In our population, everybody’s worried.”

In late February, however, his organization partnered with Futures Inc. and Cisco to launch an online employment tool called Career Pathfinder, which Rieckhoff vows, “can be the fuel injection that gets us to deeper impacts.” The free site helps translate specialized military skills to civilian jobs. It provides thousands of active job listings from employers who want to hire veterans as well as resume-building help and a career-mapping tool.

For months, though, the employment landscape has become increasingly laced with online tools meant to connect veterans to jobs, including VetNet, rolled out last November by Google and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s “Hiring Our Heroes” program. Is this the innovation that finally breaks the stubborn logjam?

“We hope so. It’s definitely got tremendous potential," Rieckhoff said.

The blueprint, he added: “is taking what normally happens at a career job fair and using technology to do all that at greater scale. If you think about the overall numbers (of post-9/11 veterans), you’re talking about a couple hundred thousand people who are unemployed. So if we can get a couple thousand employed from this program, we can make a real dent.” 

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The nation's high school graduation rate is the highest since 1976, but more than a fifth of students are still failing to get their diploma in four years, the Education Department said in a study released Tuesday.

Officials said the steady rise of students completing their education is a reflection of the struggling economy and a greater competition for new jobs. 

"If you drop out of high school, how many good jobs are there out there for you? None. That wasn't true 10 or 15 years ago," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in an interview with The Associated Press. 

The national dropout rate was about 3 percent overall, down from the year before. Many students who don't receive their diplomas in four years stay in school, taking five years or more to finish their coursework. 

Some 3.1 million students nationwide earned their high school diplomas in the spring of 2010, with 78 percent of students finishing on time. That's the best since a 75 percent on-time graduation rate during the 1975-76 academic year. 

The only better rate was 79 percent in 1969-70, a figure the department wouldn't vouch for. 

There were tremendous differences among the states in 2010. Fifty-eight percent of students in Nevada and 60 percent in Washington, D.C., completed their high school education in four years. By comparison, 91 percent of students in Wisconsin and Vermont did, according to the report. 

Latino graduation rates climb 10 points since 2006

Graduation rates increased by more than a percentage point in 38 states between 2009 and 2010, the study found. Only the District of Columbia saw its graduation rates decline between by greater than a percentage point during those years. 

Among the most significant factors of the increase was the dire U.S. economy after the 2008 Wall Street meltdown. During the 2009-10 academic year, unemployment ranged from 9.4 percent to 10 percent. 

"When I grew up on the South Side of Chicago it wasn't great, but I had lots of friends who dropped out and they could go work in the stockyards or steel mills and they could buy a home, support a family, do OK," Duncan said. 

But those jobs are gone and won't come back, he said. 

California, the nation's largest public school system by enrollment, led the nation in new graduates in 2010, turning out almost 405,000. It also produced the most dropouts: almost 93,000. That translated to a rate of about 5 percent, above the national average. 

During the 2009-10 academic year, some 514,000 students dropped out of high school nationwide. Still, the rate declined from 4 percent during the seven previous academic years, when data was sometimes incomplete or represented averages of states that reported figures. 

Nationally, students were most likely to drop out of high school during their senior year, with roughly one in 20 quitting before graduation day. In every state, males were more likely to drop out. 

Arizona had the highest dropout rate, at 8 percent, followed by Mississippi at 7 percent. Washington, D.C., schools also posted a 7 percent dropout rate, the Education Department projected based on previous years' reporting. 

Mississippi, New Mexico and Wyoming had dropout rates rise more than one percentage point, while Delaware, Illinois and Louisiana saw noticeable decreases. Delaware dropped from about 5 percent to 4 percent. Illinois dropped from roughly 12 percent to 3 percent. And Louisiana dropped from 7 percent to 5 percent. 

"The trends are hopeful but our high school dropout rate is still unsustainably high and it's untenable in many of our African-American and Latino communities. We have a long way to go here," Duncan said. 

Nationally, white and Asian and Pacific Islander students were among the least likely to leave school without a degree, with only 2 percent dropout rates. Hispanic students posted a 5 percent dropout rate, followed by blacks at 6 percent and American Indians and Alaska Natives at 7 percent. 

"There's no young person who aspires to be a high school dropout," Duncan said. "When someone drops out, it's a symptom of a problem. It's not the problem itself. Something has gone radically wrong."

Google is aiming its search-engine horsepower at homecoming veterans, launching Thursday what may be the largest online hub to help men and women exiting the military as American armed forces draw down.

Called VetNet, the site offers veterans three distinct “tracks” to plot and organize their next life moves – from “basic training” which aids job hunters to “career connections” which links users to corporate mentors and other working veterans to “entrepreneur” which offers a roadmap to starting a business.

To arm the new site with some heavy-hitting experts, Google partnered with three leading nonprofits in the veteran-employment space: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes program, the Institute for Veterans and Military Families, and Hire Heroes USA.

“We asked: What else can we be doing with our technology to help these folks transition home?” said Carrie Laureno, founder of the Google Veterans Network, the company’s employee-volunteer community which seeks to make Google a military-friendly work environment.

“We wanted to really move the needle in the right direction. And working with our three partners, we asked: What can we do together to help you reach more people?” Laureno said. “How do we help these millions of people who are in this situation get the resources they need (to land civilian jobs) in a much easier, more straightforward way that’s ever been possible before?”

After clicking a button to connect with VetNet, users gain access to a weekly snapshot of “what’s happening” in the veteran-employment arena as well as to a ready group of business advisers and to an ongoing array of virtual “hangouts” that train people on basics from resume writing to making “elevator pitches” or that allow veterans to hear insights from leaders in retail, transportation, retail and entrepreneurship, Laureno said.

The venture drew a favorable review Thursday from a key congressional member.

“I am especially pleased to see companies like Google and their partners take the initiative to bring together these various resources to help veterans navigate the employment opportunities together,” said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

Click here for more military-related coverage from NBC News.

“I am confident their combined efforts will be especially helpful to those who may not know where to start their job search. This is the least we can all do for our veterans who have served our nation so honorably,” Miller said in an email.

Miller’s words hint at the fresh irony of post-war life for thousands of ex-service members: Their initial challenge is not a lack of help; it is the over-abundance of nonprofits seeking to guide veterans from their once-super-structured schedules and tight packs of buddies to the wide-open, ultra-competitive job market.

According to an April 2012 study by the Center for a New American Security, more than 40,000 nonprofit groups now exist in this country with missions focused on filling the various needs of active-duty troops, veterans and their families.

That giant-yet-fragmented bundle of organizations — while striving to do well by veterans — must also battle for the same funding dollars. And that jostling hasn’t fostered a cohesive landscape for veterans to navigate as they begin their new career journeys, Laureno said. Given that mish-mash of helping hands, some veterans simply don’t know where to go first. 

“I’ve heard occasionally people (in the veteran-helping field) use the word ‘competitors.’ They are competing for funds. They are competing for awareness. They are competing to be in the spotlight,” Laureno said. “It’s also a well-documented issue in this community that there are some people, just like anything else, who got involved because wanted to help but that emerged as sort of looking for press.

“The founding partners here are not of that ilk. These are partners who have stuck with their original mission, who are focused on getting the help out to the people who need it, and who recognize that technology can help them take that help to a completely different level than ever before possible,” she added.

Google and VetNet are hoping to attract new partners from that sea of 40,000 groups. But they’re still hammering out the best ways to assess prospective collaborators — and their larger intensions — before they are invited to join, Laureno said.

“That’s one of the biggest challenges all of us are facing in this issue, and that’s why there has been this proliferation of 40,000-plus (veterans organizations),” she said. “We are going to need to have a some sort of vetting process. That is something the partners are working on right now: What will be the criteria they use to judge who comes on board and who doesn’t?

“Anyone who would like to get involved, who has effective services, and who is willing to make the commitment to providing them on this platform who will be supportive of the community, they’re all welcome,” she added. “But if somebody wants to advertise on a one-off basis about their particular program, this probably isn’t the right place for them.”

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Slideshow: Recovering after Sandy

Mario Tama / Getty Images

Residents of the Northeast are still picking up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.

Launch slideshow

More than 5,000 New Yorkers will be hired for temporary government jobs cleaning up after Sandy, officials said Sunday.

About $27 million in federal Labor Department money will finance the cleanup and rebuilding positions in New York City and eight nearby counties, paying about $15 per hour and generally lasting about six months, state and federal officials said.

Separately, the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are working to put New Yorkers into more than 700 temporary FEMA jobs, some as administrative assistants and community relations workers.

"This is a neighbors-helping-neighbors effort," state Labor Commissioner Peter Rivera said at a news conference in Red Hook, a Brooklyn neighborhood flooded by Sandy's surge. Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it "a chance to provide young and unemployed New Yorkers with job opportunities cleaning up their communities."

Read more news on NBCNewYork.com

The crisis-turned-opportunity message wasn't lost on K'Reese Cole, one of two dozen or more people who lined up after Sunday's announcement to submit applications at a disaster relief center in Red Hook. So far, more than 800 people from across the state have applied, officials said.

Cole, who's lived in Red Hook all his 32 years, works various jobs in demolition and construction.

"Now I'm trying to work with the cleanup effort out here because we did lose a lot in the community," said Cole, a rapper who also goes by the name Tru Born.

Plus, he said, a government job — even a temporary one — could represent a steppingstone to steady work for him and many of his neighbors in Red Hook. The venerable dock and warehouse area includes one of the nation's biggest public housing complexes, along with artists' studios and accoutrements of urban bohemia.

Seth Wenig / AP, file

Metal worker Yannick Jacques cleans his shop in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn on Nov. 12.

Some residents of the public housing development, the Red Hook Houses, were without electricity or heat for about two weeks after the Oct. 29 storm.

While the floods have receded and the lights are back on, lingering needs were still visible Sunday in a community where many were struggling before the storm.

After Sandy's deluge, mold and dust are the threats

A block away from the disaster aid center where the jobs announcement was made, members of the Lighthouse Seventh Day Adventist Church set up a table in a park and served free Jamaican-style stew chicken, rice and peas and other dishes. First Elder Dennis McCurchin estimated 500 people were served.

Back at the disaster center, Mickey Reid submitted a job application and looked with surprised appreciation at the cluster of officials eager to take it.

"The need was here all along," said Reid, 58, a vice president of a tenants' association in the Red Hook Houses. "Since the storm came, these things actually happen now."

Job-seekers can apply at a FEMA disaster recovery center, call the state Labor Department at 888-469-7365 or visit http://labor.ny.gov/sandyjobs.

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A think tank convened to gauge the financial well-being of “workplace warriors” says home-front job prospects remain “discouraging” for ex-service members, with many hiring managers seemingly scared off by the possibility that candidates have post-traumatic stress disorder.

For even casual watchers of the ex-military vocational plight, the larger conclusion is hardly striking: the “combat-to-corporate” path has long been paved with good intentions, but clogged by application dead ends. What’s more, the group’s downbeat assessment comes amid some rays of improvement. Last month, the unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans finally nudged lower, to 9.7 percent, two full points below the jobless pace during than the same month in 2011, according to federal figures. 

But, the experts contend, too many American companies have failed to boost their own internal ranks of former troops, ignoring the military-friendly examples set by Walmart, the Hartford, Citi and several other businesses under the "hire our heroes" mantra.

"Few employers are fully prepared to meet the needs of disabled veterans in the workplace, according to research from Cornell University and the Society for Human Resources Management," think tank members wrote.  "... Nearly 20 percent of service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan screened positive for PTSD." (That reported military-PTSD rate has decreased during the past five years, Cornell scientists have found, noting the drop is due largely to interventions by the U.S. military.) 

The 2012 Workplace Warriors Think Tank, composed by business, military and health leaders, originally gathered in 2007 — before the Great Recession — to examine the same lag in ex-military hiring. Since then, the nation’s slow economic recovery has sidelined tens of thousands of veterans along with millions of other American workers. “But I’m sure, in the case of some employers, the economy is an excuse for them just to say ‘no’ to veterans,” said the report’s editor, Marcia Carruthers.

And while the think tank does see threads of tangible progress in the private sector, such as the 100,000 Jobs Mission, it added that: “The fruits of these efforts have yet to fully materialize. More needs to be done” to open opportunities for civilian soldiers and full-time military members.

In large part, that’s because just below the simple math of supply and demand, a dark group-psychology seems to be at play, Carruthers said. Battle-related mental illness — diagnosed in some returning veterans but apparently associated with all of them — is tainting many or most job-hunting veterans.

“The stigma of PTSD is at the top of the list,” said Carruthers, president and CEO of the Disability Management Employer Coalition, a nonprofit.

“These veterans are exactly the kinds of people you’d want to hire — they’re used to working as a team; they’re loyal; you give them an order and they follow through,” Carruthers said. “So some of this is related to the types of injuries we’re seeing — and, I would say, really, due to the fear of employers in terms of bringing back these people. If they were coming home with broken legs, it would be a different thing. There’s a fear factor.”

Among veteran-friendly companies with representatives on the think tank are insurance provider MetLife and technology consultant Booz Allen Hamilton. While some large U.S. companies are clearing space to bring veterans in house, it’s the “smaller organizations that often struggle,” Carruthers said.

“They don’t have many employees, and not many of their people have been deployed. They also may not have HR departments that are aggressively seeking diversity,” she added. “So it’s more the smaller organizations that are just not as aware of this issue — or that don’t feel they have the resources. But it’s small business that definitely make up our economy.” 

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Updated at 5:45 p.m. ET: CHICAGO -- As Chicago teachers union delegates met Sunday to go over the details of the proposed contract hammered out late Saturday night, some worried the union would not approve the deal.

A faction of the union sees it as a "back room deal" that does not have unified support. While Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis and her team are ready to present the details this afternoon, already there is a vocal faction promising to vote no.   

A source close to the union says late into Saturday night, Lewis' caucus shouted obscenities at her and the other leaders - "You sold out" and "Rahm's getting everything they wanted, what the hell did we get?"   

Lewis, who is exhausted from a tense week, indicated that she's done negotiating and asked "Will my own caucus defy me?"

At the heart of those who oppose this new deal - they feel the negotiating team did not fight for paraprofessionals and special education teachers and students.

Read full coverage at NBCChicago.com

Compounding the delegates anger is today at sundown is the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah and many of the Jewish delegates feel pressured to vote  even though  they shouted at Lewis there is "no way to vote on something we haven't seen." 

On the other hand, union members could vote to accept the new contract, ending the city’s week-long teacher strike -- the first one in 25 years -- opening school doors for 350,000 students as early as Monday. But delegates could ask for 24 hours to talk to individual members in their schools before making a decision on what to do next.

“We are a democratic body and therefore we want to ensure all of our members have had the chance to weigh-in on what we were able to win,” said CTU President Karen Lewis. “We believe this is a good contract, however, no contract will solve all of the inequities in our District."

Delegates are not the ones who will sign off on the new contract, union leadership explained. That responsibility remains with the union rank and file.

Negotiators started the day with a vow to remain at the table all day, to hammer out final details in an agreement which could open classroom doors again on Monday.

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"Hopefully we can do it," said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said on Saturday before heading into talks to end the week-long teacher strike. "But like I said, the devil's in the details in the contracts, and we want it in writing."

The talks, which began at 9 a.m. Saturday, took most of the day and were still going on 12 hours later. Both sides are working out the details to a "tentative" contract that could suspend the strike and put students back in class.

Once the language of the contract is decided, it will go to the union's House of Delegates for approval. Both sides have expressed a desire to have the contract ready for approval by Sunday.

Even though an agreement is still being negotiated, Sharkey thinks the strike itself was a victory for his members.

"Educators in the city of Chicago feel like they've had their voices heard for the first time in a very long time," he said. "Frankly we're tired of the political establishment taking credit for every gain the schools make, when we're the ones who do all the work."

Earlier in the day, Mayor Rahm Emanuel had no words about the possibility of an agreement and refused all questions pertaining to the strike as he worked the crowd at the Mexican Independence Parade.

Around the same time in Union Park, an estimated 2,500 teachers and supporters gathered for a "Solidarity Rally."

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Lewis was one of the 20 speakers who took to the stage during the rally and applauded the teachers for standing their ground while reminding them the work was not over.

"We are still on strike," Lewis told the crowd decked out in red. "We have a framework; we do not have an agreement."

On Friday, leaders on both sides of Chicago's teacher strike said they have a "framework" in place to end the stalemate that's embroiled the city and kept students out of classes for a full week.

Chicago's first teacher strike in 25 years could end Sunday if the union's House of Delegates approves that action. The delegates are not the ones who will sign off on the new contract, however, union leadership explained. That responsibility remains with the union rank and file.

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More than 125,000 military veterans and spouses were hired or trained through a White House partnership with private businesses last year, beating an earlier goal of 100,000 by nearly a year, first lady Michelle Obama announced on Wednesday.

A White House program that started out with just a few companies grew to 2,000 including major corporations, the first lady said.

That has led the White House and the companies involved to set their sights higher — hiring or training an additional 250,000 veterans and military spouses by 2014.

Obama made the announcement at Naval Station Mayport in the presidential campaign battleground state of Florida on Wednesday afternoon.

Related: VA blasted for spending millions on conferences

"I want to send a very clear message to the men and women who are wearing or have worn our country's uniform and to their spouses," Obama said. "When you have finished your service to our nation, you have got 2,000 great American companies ready and waiting to bring you on board."

In addition to the announcement event in Jacksonville, the White House released a new video trumpeting the project on YouTube.

The hiring initiative, called Joining Forces, was first announced last year by President Barack Obama. Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, were asked to lead the effort.

Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com 

The new goal also includes the hiring or training 50,000 military spouses within three years as well as a previously announced effort to help spouses maintain their careers as families move among duty stations. 

"More and more businesses are recognizing that hiring veterans is good for their bottom line, and they are making bold commitments to bring veterans into their ranks," Brad Cooper, executive director of the Joining Forces effort, told The Associated Press.

The White House said the hiring push has helped to reduce unemployment among veterans from 8.6 percent in July 2011 to 6.9 percent last month.

According to U.S. Labor Department figures, the unemployment rate for veterans of the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was 8.9 percent in July 2012, down from 12.4 percent in July 2011. The national rate of unemployment was 8.3 percent in July 2012, down from 8.9 percent in July 2011.

A list of companies who have committed to hire veterans is listed on the White House website.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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New York power utility Consolidated Edison Inc locked out its unionized workers early on Sunday after contract talks broke down, both sides said, raising the possibility of power cuts during a summer heat wave.

The company asked to extend negotiations for two more weeks, it said, but the union, which had threatened a strike, refused. In response, the firm told union members not to report for work on Sunday.

Reuters reported that the action increased the risk of power outages if a continuing heat wave puts extra strain on the electrical grid for New York City and suburban Westchester county.

However, a utility official told the New York Daily News that customers should not expect to see any adverse effects.

"Both sides are far apart," said company spokesman Mike Clendenon. "We asked the union to extend the talks for two weeks but they refused."

"We can't operate the system reliably for customers if the union can still call a strike at a moment's notice," he said.

He did not use the term "lockout" but said the company notified unionized workers not to report for work. ConEd managers have been specially trained to handle emergency or maintenance work, he said.

John Melia, a spokesman for the Utilities Workers Union of America (UWUA) said that as of 2 a.m. Sunday (EDT) its 8,500 ConEd power workers were locked out.

"ConEd took the extreme measure of locking out its unionized workforce putting the city of New York and Westchester county in peril during a heat wave."

The lockout came as the summer's second heat wave hit the city of over 8 million people, with stifling temperatures near 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), raising demand for power to operate air conditioners.

Both sides continued talking for over an hour after the midnight Saturday deadline expired, but failed to reach a settlement over a new contract for the company's unionized workers. A major sticking point in the contract was ConEd's plan to phase out defined pensions.

The union membership had authorized its leaders to call a strike at midnight on Saturday, when the collective bargaining agreement expired. A similar strike in 1983 lasted nine weeks, while a blackout in July 1977 - caused not by labor action but by lightning strikes - resulted in looting and civil disorder in the largest U.S. city.

As the deadline approached, 200-300 union members staged a rally in downtown Manhattan, chanting "If we go out, the lights go out."

Tony Ballone, a union delegate, told Reuters the main issues were pensions, wages and health care. "They (ConEd) want to take everything we have fought for 50 years."

"We're the first responders, we come out in rain and snow, we keep the lights on. All we want is a fair contract," he said.

With Con Edison workers locked out, company managers are left to fix whatever problems arise as New Yorkers crank up their air conditioners.

The utility had only just returned power to Brooklyn and other areas of the city blacked out in a heat wave 10 days ago. Still, with the lockout coming over a weekend, when many businesses in Manhattan are typically closed, demand for power will be lower than a weekday.

That would lessen the risk the utility will have to reduce voltage, commonly called a brown out, as the utility was forced to do last week in Brooklyn and Queens.

Still, the UWUA union stressed that without its skilled workers, the Big Apple could be facing outages if a deal is not agreed. Con Ed has 13,000 employees including union members.

Temperatures in New York City were expected to reach 92 degrees on Sunday and 90 degrees on Monday before slipping into the 80s on Tuesday before the Fourth of July holiday, according to AccuWeather.com. The normal high for this time of year is 83 degrees. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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