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Service members leaving the military today face higher unemployment than at any time in recent history. So Congress, the Department of Labor and the White House are looking for ways to help these veterans get work in the civilian world. Jessica Harbin/MNS

WASHINGTON — When Tom Tarantino left military service at age 29, he thought he’d have an easy time transitioning into civilian work.

“I assumed I’d have a job in two or three months,” he said. “That’s what they tell us in the Army.”

It’s not hard to understand why he was so confident. Tarantino had 10 years of service and several promotions, leaving the Army as a captain in 2007. He had been a platoon leader in Iraq for a year, heading more than 500 mortar missions, investigating local militia leaders and conducting counterinsurgency operations. After being promoted to captain, he was put in charge of a unit of more than 350 soldiers, 160 vehicles, and 600 weapons systems.

But, Tarantino explained, translating all of those qualifications to civilian employers was difficult, a problem experts say contributes to the 11.6 percent unemployment rate among former service members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One potential employer asked Tarantino toward the end of an interview if he’d be able to handle the pressure of having 30 people working directly under him.

Tarantino had to suppress his laughter. “I had been leading 30 soldiers in Iraq with bullets flying over our heads,” he said. “I think I can do a ‘9-to-5′ running 30 people.” Tarantino said he had a tough time explaining his qualifications, and employers had an even harder time understanding them. There was a problem on both ends.

A survey conducted by Military.com, a community Web site for the military and veterans owned by Monster Worldwide, indicates that 61 percent of employers say they don’t have a complete understanding of the qualifications of former service members. Three-fourths of veterans said they cannot effectively translate their military experience for civilian employers.

“There are a lot of programs and Web sites out there that deal with translation, but it’s almost confusing,” Raymond Jefferson, assistant secretary for veterans’ employment at the Department of Labor, told a Senate committee hearing this week.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, an advocacy group dedicated to improving the lives of veterans, and several other groups think they have found an answer: A Web site that will match veterans’ skills with employers’ demands, similar to an online dating service.

The Web site will become fully operational in the middle of next year. But Tarantino won’t be using it.

It took Tarantino several hundred applications, more than 50 interviews and 10 months, but he landed a job last year — as a policy advocate for the IAVA.

“It was getting to the point where I was going to have to sell fruit on the side of the road,” he said.