Some National Guardsmen returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan are finding that their civilian jobs have been eliminated by companies forced by the economy to make deep budget cuts.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 60% of Americans think the law should be changed to prevent employers from eliminating any jobs held by those called for National Guard duty.

Twenty-three percent (23%) of adults do not believe any change in the current law is necessary, and 17% are not sure.

Under the existing Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act, the jobs of National Guard members and those in the Reserves are protected when they are called to active duty. But the law doesn’t require holding those jobs open when companies make major across-the-board cuts in their workforces.

Sixty-three percent (63%) say National Guard members whose jobs were eliminated while they were on active duty should receive special preference in hiring for other jobs. Twenty-two percent (22%) disagree and oppose giving them special preference. Fourteen percent (14%) aren’t sure.

With the unemployment rate nearing 10 percent, adults under the age of 40 are less sympathetic to giving returning National Guard members special preference than their elders are.

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Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Americans have a favorable opinion of the National Guard. Just five percent (5%) view them unfavorably, while 18% are not sure.

Substantial majorities across all demographic groups hold a favorable view of the National Guard.

Yet while nearly 60% of both government employees and those who work in the private sector think the law should be change to prevent elimination of any jobs held by on-duty National Guard members, entrepreneurs are more closely divided.

Men under 40 are less supportive of changing the law than older men and women in all age groups.

Women also tend to favor more than men special preference in hiring for National Guardsmen whose jobs were eliminated while they were on duty.

Thirty-even percent (37%) of working Americans expect to be working for the same employer in five years. That figure is down 10 percentage points since July and may partially reflect discouraging short-term economic conditions. However, data from recent years consistently shows that Americans plan on a career path with multiple employers.

Employed Americans are slightly more confident than they were this summer that leaving their current jobs will be their own decision rather than their employer’s.

For the 13th straight month, the Rasmussen Employment Index finds that the percentage of firms laying off employees exceeds the number that are hiring.

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