PORTLAND — About 40 percent of the 700 Oregon National Guardsmen who just returned from Iraq and Afghanistan are unemployed, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Some didn't have jobs before they were deployed; other members of the 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry, which arrived home last week lost their jobs while they were on active duty.

Their numbers are far bleaker than Oregon's overall unemployment rate, which stands at about 6.4 percent.

The high unemployment rate among Guard soldiers "certainly was a surprise to me,'' said Ron Cannon, the Labor Department's director of Veterans Employment and Training in Portland.

The problem has prompted the Labor Department to offer Oregon a first-ever training program for returning soldiers. And it moved Gov. Ted Kulongoski to publicly call on Oregon employers to "give ‘em a job.''

Returning soldiers are going to have a tough enough time readjusting to civilian life after their extended tours overseas, the governor said at a news conference.

"They don't need to be worrying about whether they're going to be able to find a job or not,'' Kulongoski said. "The employers of the state can do this. All they have to do is step up to it, make it a priority, hire a vet.''

Before the deployment, some of the Guardsmen were in school, or couldn't find work in Oregon's hard-pressed economy, instead relying on part-time Guard pay as their main source of income.

Federal law requires employers to hold open jobs for guardsmen called up for active duty. But the law has a number of exemptions, including economic hardship and changes in the ability of the soldier to perform his or her work duties.

That applies to Sgt. Bill Stout, of Oregon's 2nd Battalion, who won't be returning to his full-time job as a National Guard Black Hawk helicopter crew chief because he suffered back injuries pulling other soldiers out of a burning Humvee last June.

Before he was called up, he got his adrenaline rushes and his paychecks helping rescue stranded hikers on Mount Hood.

Oregon Guard Spc. Frank Hostler, who stood at the news conference with Kulongoski, said his environmental protection job with Salem was eliminated while he was in Iraq as a member of the 52nd Engineers. He said he has looked for jobs since but thinks the likelihood that he could be called up again hurt his chances.

"They wanted somebody who was going to be there,'' Hostler said.