The recently announced U.S. troop pullback will bring 10,000 military men and women home from Afghanistan this year, and an additional 23,000 by next summer.

Locally that will mean a lot more work for Veterans First, a Lancaster program run by non-profit Jewish Vocational Services Los Angeles. The program, launched early last year, helps veterans get jobs.

“We’ll prepare to be swamped with veterans,” said John Tyler, the program’s coordinator.

The program provides three main services: vocational training, workshops to build job-search skills and employer referrals. It received $465,000 from a state grant in June to assist the roughly 150 veterans who come through the program yearly. Each is eligible for up to $7,500 of vocational training. Two-thirds of the program’s funding goes toward veterans deployed since Sept. 11, 2001. Nationally, that group had an unemployment rate of 13 percent for the first quarter of 2011, compared with 9.3 percent for the general population. The remaining money helps older veterans.

Where will the returnees find jobs? Most likely in health care; information technology; and green energy, such as installing wind turbines.

“Not only are veterans interested in those, but they have the highest growth,” said Tyler.

Tyler served two tours in Iraq. When he returned to civilian life in 2006, he found employment through a work-study program, but didn’t know any transitional programs such as Veterans First.

“I know exactly what the veterans go through,” he said. “And I know there are more vets out there who don’t know about this.”