Employment/Unemployment for Veterans

EMPLOYMENT/UNEMPLOYMENT FOR VETERANS by Ron Drach Former Director of Government and Legislative Affairs, DOL/VETS

If one veteran is unemployed it is one too many. However, it has been become very perplexing reading or hearing accounts about the “unemployment” problems of veterans. I would like to know where people are getting their numbers.

President Obama indicates there are one million unemployed veterans. A high ranking Army official says 850,000. Who is right? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were about 860,000 unemployed veterans in October 2011. Most recently I attended a conference and one of the panelists said that the unemployment for veterans is 24%. The truth is that in October 2011 the unemployment rate for ALL veterans was 7.7% while the general population recorded 9.0%. The population of veterans with the highest unemployment rate are those ages 18-24.

There is only one official source for employment/unemployment data and that comes from the BLS’ Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 households that is the main source of information on the labor force in the United States. There may be surveys and other sources/estimates but those who use other than BLS data should cite their source.

Let’s talk about the 18-24 year olds. Although it’s true that reservists and National Guard are considered veterans if they served on active duty, there are still relatively few veterans under the age of 20. Nevertheless, the unemployment rate for veterans age 18 to 24 was 30.4 percent in October 2011.

The greatest number of unemployed veterans from Gulf War-era II (post 9/11), are age 25-34 years. Remember those post 9/11 veterans being discharged may be in a higher age range than 18-24 and also we are talking “era” which includes everyone who served on active duty since September 2001 regardless of whether they served overseas or within the United States.

BLS encourages the use of annual average data, over monthly and quarterly data, whenever possible. The annual data are based on 12 months of interviews and thus are more robust. The annual data are typically available on the first Friday in January of every year. BLS also publishes an annual news release on veterans that uses annual average data and data from a special CPS supplement on veterans. The news release includes breakouts of other categories that include veterans with a service-connected disability, Reserve and National Guard, and minority veterans.

*Ron Drach has almost 45 years experience working on veterans’ issues with more than 40 on employment issues. He can be contacted at [email protected]