Good and bad news on the latest veteran employment figures
Published: February 9, 2010
First the good news -- Veterans as a whole have a slightly lower unemployment rate than their counterparts who have never served in the military.
But the bad news is that veteran's unemployment has more than doubled in the past two years, and veterans of the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are having an even more difficult time finding work after their military careers.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its January 2010 unemployment statistics late last week; Veterans posted a 9.6 percent unemployment rate, up nearly 1.5 percent from the average monthly unemployment in 2009 but still below the overall non-veteran unemployment rate of 10.4 percent.
So, the job market has been slightly kinder to job seekers with military experience ... unless that service came recently. Among veterans who have served since 2001 and left the military, the unemployment rate is 12.6 percent, well above the 10.2 percent average for 2009.
Veterans groups have worried in recent years that younger servicemembers leaving the military aren't getting the job training or job opportunities needed to succeed in civilian life. The 12.6 percent unemployment rate translates into 213,000 young jobless veterans, more than are currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And, if the trends continue, those numbers will only get bigger. In January 2009 the overall veterans unemployment rate was 7.4 percent; In January 2008, it was 4.7 percent.
[PHOTO: Department of Defense]
