Statistics released by the Labor Department last month painted a picture of a disturbing trend for young veterans.

The unemployment rate for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars reached 14.7 percent in March, according to the latest government statistics. The number of unemployed veterans increased to more than 250,000, up about 40,000 over the previous month's figures, according to the Department of Labor Statistics.

The just-released rate for young veterans was significantly higher than the unemployment rate of young veterans in that age group (14.1 percent) in 2008.

"It makes you almost want to go out and rip off all the ‘Support Your Troops' bumper stickers," Joe Davis, a spokesman for the 1.5-million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars told USA Today recently. "If you want to support your troops, give them a job."

Many of the unemployed are members of the Guard and Reserves who have deployed multiple times, Joseph Sharpe, director of the economic division at the American Legion told The Associated Press.

Sharpe said some come home to find their jobs have been eliminated because the company has downsized. Other companies may not want to hire someone who could deploy again or will have medical appointments because of war-related health problems, he said.

"It's a horrible environment because if you're a reservist and you're being deployed two or three times in a five-year period, you know you're less competitive," Sharpe told the AP. "Many companies that are already hurting are reluctant to hire you and time kind of moves on once you're deployed."

Lee Branson, a 29-year-old Seattle resident who spent three years in the Air Force and two in the Washington National Guard, told The Seattle Times recently people have a lot of misconceptions about the military, and those misconceptions make it difficult for veterans.

Prospective employers seem to think Branson's military experience might make him too rigid, too authoritarian and prone to react badly under stress, he told the paper at a recent round-table discussion in Seattle held by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Murray told the paper she plans to propose legislation helping veterans' employment efforts.

Programs to better equip young veterans for work in the private sector, to provide a greater array of education and training and to help sell veterans' message to employers are possible moves Congress could consider, Murray said.

"Veterans come home with some of the best experience ever," Murray said. "They are determined, qualified, they show up for work on time. Often our business folks who are doing the hiring don't know that."