According to data released this week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the jobless rate for veterans who have served in various branches of the U.S. military averaged 12.1 percent throughout 2011. The current administration has also noted the problem of unemployment among recent veterans and has tried to alleviate the situation by providing new tax credits to those employers willing to hire veterans today. Even with renewed efforts to help veterans find employment, the situation looks like it will only get worse in the future as more troops will be returning from Afghanistan soon and the Pentagon has said it will let 124,000 more soldiers out of the military by the year 2017.

Making a bleak outlook even bleaker, a new survey conducted by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America support organization says the unemployment rate for U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are actually higher than government statistics show. The New York-based veteran’s support group surveyed over 2,000 members in an online poll conducted between Jan. 1 and Jan. 16 this year and found that the true unemployment rate among U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is as high as 17 percent. In addition to employment numbers, the survey also looked at the mental-health of veterans after a decade of war and a third of the respondents said they knew a veteran who has committed suicide. Another two-thirds said both active duty troops and veterans alike are not getting the mental-health care they need.

The veteran’s group’s report said that even though their unemployment numbers are a full eight percentage points above the national average, the group is confident that their survey results are accurate and represent members’ experiences and opinions truthfully. The single biggest reason most veterans (34%) cited in the report for their current average of 13 months of joblessness was “the current economic downturn.” Another 24% said they could not find jobs that matched their skills and of those veterans currently working part-time, almost all (89%) said they need to work full-time.

Although the soaring unemployment rate for veterans was the most urgent problem cited by the survey respondents, mental health ranked a solid second place with over 60% of the vets saying that they don’t think U.S. troops receive adequate mental-health care and that the Defense Department doesn’t do a good enough job in reaching out to those troops and veterans needing mental health support. Although the rate of suicide among returning veterans has actually gone down four percentage points from the 37% totals in 2010, the number of unemployed vets continues to rise above the national average at a time when the national average itself is a huge problem. In that light, it looks like veterans and all Americans should be prepared for some very creative interpretations of the rising unemployment rate when the next presidential election takes place in the fall.

The latest figures from the Labor Department show that the temporary holiday hiring that was responsible for boosting December payrolls may also be responsible for a rise in jobless claims for the week ending January 7. Temporary holiday hiring by package delivery companies like UPS and FedEx as well as retailers to meet the seasonal demand could be behind the increase in job losses, although the numbers are harder to calculate during the holidays when the seasonal swings in employment affect the data.

The Labor Department figures showed that while unemployment claims rose by 24,000 to 399,000, the number of people receiving extended payments decreased at the same time, although the continuing claims numbers do not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs. Although various economists had predicted the claims would rise from 352,000 to 405,000, the Labor Department said there was nothing unusual in the data. The seasonal-adjustment had projected a 12 percent increase in claims during the first week of January, but the number climbed to 19 percent instead.

Economists have trouble as adjusting the week-to-week data around the holidays and most agree that the seasonal volatility results in uncertain projections of the data for a few weeks continuing into January. Using a four-week average that is more steady than weekly numbers shows that unemployment claims rose to 381,750, up from 374,000. At the same time, the number of people continuing to receive unemployment benefits increased by 19,000 to a total of 3.63 million people in the last week of the year.

Labor Department figures for the week of Jan. 6th also showed some better news in that payrolls rose by 200,000 workers in December after rising by 100,000 the month before, and the jobless rate fell to 8.5 percent at the same time, the lowest level in nearly three years. Although economists estimated that at least 40,000 of the increased seasonal employment on the December payrolls was due to a jump in hiring by the courier and messenger services like FedEx and UPS, 2011 was the best year for American workers since 2006. Employers created 1.64 million jobs in 2011 as the economy moves toward recovering the 8.75 million jobs lost as a result of the recession.

Because America is currently saddled with an unemployment rate of 8.5%, millions of homeowners are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with their mortgage payments. However, there is some good news in the pipeline for those homeowners who got their mortgages through Freddie Mac. Freddie Mac recently announced that it will make it possible for unemployed homeowners to increase the period of time that their mortgage payments can be lowered or suspended. This latest offer increases the time period from 3 months to 6 months with the possibility of a one-year extension as well. Although it may not be a long-term solution, it will give some unemployed homeowners a bit more time to get back on track.

The mortgage giant also changed the rules for approving the right to halt loan payments to reduce the complication and speed up the process by eliminating the need for the companies that service Freddie Mac’s home loans to get approval from Freddie Mac before helping out unemployed homeowners, and now enables those companies to approve the relief process on their own.

Unfortunately, given the current financial and economic conditions in the United States, it might take many unemployed homeowners a lot longer than 6 months to find a job and get back on their feet again. At least the new longer time period program is estimated to provide some relief for as many as 10% of Freddie Mac’s mortgage holders. The small bit of good news seems to be spreading though, as the other large government mortgage giant, Fannie Mae, announced it will be adopting a similar strategy of relief for unemployed homeowners in the near future.

In an upside down housing market, the attempts at temporary payment reprieves are akin to placing a band-aid on an amputation and will not stop the most of the bleeding for the millions of unemployed homeowners currently struggling to keep their homes. Instead of just a few months break from their existing mortgage obligations, what struggling homeowners really need is a quality loan modification that provides sustained financial relief over the long term. The effort to help out unemployed homeowners is a step in the right direction, and Freddie Mac should be applauded for its good intentions, but a lot more work remains to be done if the U.S. is going to be able to pull the housing market out of the slump it is in right now.

Although the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that in December 2011 the number of net jobs went up for women for the first time in a year, the overall unemployment rate for women actually went up a tenth of a percent to 7.9 percent from the prior month. Even less inspiring is that the latest data from the BLS on teen unemployment in the United States. The unemployment rate for teens may have recently fallen by 1.6 percentage points, but the overall December 2011 unemployment rate for teens was still a whopping 23.1 percent, a figure that is almost three times higher than the current overall national unemployment rate of around 8.5 percent.

The numbers for teens are pretty shocking. Teens lost nearly one million jobs during the last five years and their unemployment rate skyrocketed from 16.3 percent in June 2007, to 24.7 percent in June 2009. Overall unemployment for teens declined a bit in subsequent summers, but during the first two years of the recovery from June 2009 to June 2011, minority female teens suffered larger increases in unemployment than any other groups. In response to the bleak numbers, the Obama administration recently announced an initiative called Summer Jobs+, which will attempt to create 250,000 employment opportunities for low-income youth in the summer of 2012 through public-private partnerships.

The loss of employment opportunities for young women and men will negatively affect their future job prospects and the situation is especially important for low-income teens and teens of color as less work experience leads to lower earnings overall. A new study by the White House Council for Community Solutions found that fewer opportunities for young people imposes costs on society as a whole because taxpayers are forced to bear billions of dollars in direct costs and lost tax revenue to support those young adults who are cut off from work. The youth unemployment problem will likely continue to require substantial investments and it will be up to Congress to address the situation with measures like extending federal unemployment insurance and passing more workplace acts that will create jobs and help teens and others groups who currently face the greatest obstacles to employment.