DAYTON — Ohio’s September unemployment rate held steady at 9.1 percent, on par with the national average that shows little relief for the nation’s 14 million unemployed workers.

Among the hardest hit by the weak job market have been the veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, classified as Gulf War-era II veterans by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The national unemployment rate for so-called post-9/11 veterans jumped dramatically from 9.8 percent in August to 11.7 percent last month, while the rate for non-veterans fell from 8.9 percent to 8.6 percent during the same period, according to BLS figures.

In Ohio, post-9/11 veterans were unemployed at a rate of 14.8 percent at the end of May, representing about 8,000 of the 54,000 post-9/11 veterans in the work force, according to the most recent figures available from the Ohio Department of Veterans Services.

The veteran labor force is likely to swell in the coming months as President Obama moves ahead with plans to draw down more than 30,000 troops from Afghanistan, sending more veterans into the fight for jobs.

“Since July, I average three to five hours daily combing job boards, going to job fairs and networking events all in an effort to land a private-sector job ... and have barely gotten a nibble,” said Lee Ray, a former Air Force flight commander who spent his last five years of active duty at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. “I am extremely proud of my service to my country for over 16 years, but I am now seeing it could possibly have been a detriment to my professional future.”

Mike McKinney, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Veterans Services and himself an Army veteran, said there is “no simple answer” for the disparity in unemployment rates for veterans.

McKinney said veterans have been denied jobs for a variety of reasons, including concerns about redeployment, military skill sets that don’t match private-sector job requirements and a lack of experience, since many veterans of recent wars have never worked outside the military.

But some local veterans say their biggest roadblock to gainful employment has been the perception that they may have undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorders that could flare up while they’re on the job.

Being a veteran is “almost a deterrent, it seems like, to some employers. They look at you after they find out you’re a veteran, especially a combat veteran, like you’re some kind of a nut job,” said Richard Martin, 44, who retired in 2009 as a master sergeant in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division.

Martin, originally from Hamilton, served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he was wounded in 2006 by a roadside bomb. He’s fully recovered after being honorably discharged in 2009 and now works as an over-the-road truck driver for American Central Transport in Liberty, Mo. But he doubts he’d have the job if the company didn’t have a hiring program that specifically targets veterans.

“I had to go to Missouri to get a job,” he said. “I was told by so many local companies that I was overqualified or that they would give me a temporary tryout.

“How can you be overqualified to drive a truck?” Martin asked. “You either have the (CDL) license or you don’t.”

Martin said he applauds President Obama’s efforts to get Congress to approve the piece of his jobs package that would provide tax incentives to employers who hire veterans.

Still, he doubts the incentives would have much impact because of employers’ overriding concerns.

“I don’t think it would change people’s mind-sets because there are a lot of veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan who are battling bipolar (disorder) and depression and things of that nature,” he said. “But that’s not all of us.”

“Most guys come back from Iraq or Afghanistan, and, yes, there’s a period of adjustment,’’ McKinney said. “But most people are able to work and relate well with their families and other people, and it’s not really an issue for them. It’s only an issue for a very small percentage of the overall veteran population.’’

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2437 or rtucker@DaytonDailyNews.com.