| Summary: | 博士 === 國立暨南國際大學 === 社會政策與社會工作學系 === 96 === Abstract
According to dataset of Young-adult Veteran Survey in 1995, 1997, and 2004, the working conditions of young-adult veterans were poorer than the non-veterans. The current manpower policy of the Defense Ministry is going to reach “All Volunteer Forces” in the coming 4-6 years which means the population of veterans will be multiplied in 10 years from now. If veterans’ employment problems were not improved with policy efforts, we expect that they will become a new social problem.
Both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed in this study. First of all, we proceeded with secondary analysis of the dataset of Young-adult Veteran Survey in 2004 that gives us a general picture of veterans’ employment. The main findings are as follow: (1) Distribution of veterans’ socioeconomic status (SES) is like “M” shape. (2) Female veterans enjoy higher SES than male veterans. (3) Officers enjoy higher SES than non-commissioned officers. (4) The higher the education they have, the higher the SES they enjoy. (5) Veterans who have attended occupational training programs perform better than those who never attended any. (6) Far more veterans are engaged in “Other Junk Jobs” than in other formal jobs which indicate “labor market segregation” phenomenon. (7) Comparing to other job-searching methods, personal social networking does not necessarily result in higher occupational prestige and job salary.
Second, we adopt semi-structural in-depth interview with 22 informants to depict the veterans’ employment course from the perspectives of “motivations of joining military”, “influences by military experiences”, “disadvantages and adjustment during employment course”, “strength and weakness factors” and “interactive effect of human capital and social capital”. From the information we gathered, we form three employment patterns of veterans: (1) Type A: “transforming smoothly, and when conditions are ripe, success is assured ”. (2) Type B: “learning a specific skill, developing steadily in certain field”. (3) Type C: “keep looking for better job, but the career is fluctuant”.
Based on the quantitative and qualitative findings, the major theoretical discussions are stated below. (1) Human capital factors not only decide the primary position of early career, but also influence SES in veterans’ later life. (2) The type of social capital veterans employed is mainly strong ties, and the function of social capital is mostly limited on information providing of job opportunities. The higher the SES veterans enjoy, the more the social resources they can mobilize. (3) The groups of non-commissioned officers and female veterans are not significant in this study and this will require more studies on their employment courses. Finally, we suggest more policy learning with special focus on the related veteran’s employment services and their implications.
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