The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Feb. 2013 data on unemployment among military veterans March 8. The Bureau estimates that there were 21.5 million veterans and that 52 percent of them were in the labor force. That means that those veterans were working or actively looking for work.
The unemployment rate for veterans was 6.9 percent in February. For men, the rate was also 6.9 percent while female veterans had an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent. The 1.4 million female veterans in the labor force make up 12.5 percent of the total number of veterans working or looking for work.
The BLS categorizes veterans by period of service. They break out data for World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam-era veterans, Gulf War I veterans, Gulf War II veterans and those who served at other times. The categories are somewhat useful.
World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam-era veterans are all near or over the age of 65. The BLS reports that there are 9,266,000 veterans over 65, and, somewhat surprisingly, 1,850,000 still in the labor force. Of that number, 172,000 veterans of that era are unemployed, a rate of 5.6 percent. The remaining veterans over 65 make up 71 percent of all veterans not in the labor force.
At the other end of the age spectrum are veterans ages 18 to 24. These are exclusively veterans who served in the Gulf War II era, after Sept. 2001. Of the 201,000 veterans in this age group, 166,000 are in the workforce with 60,000 listed as unemployed. That is a 36 percent unemployment rate. There are 34,000 veterans ages 18 to 24 who are not in the labor force, either having given up looking for work, in school full-time or for some other reason.
The BLS makes two tables of data available each month containing information on the employment and unemployment status of veterans. Table A-5 is titled ”Employment status of the civilian population 18 years and over by veteran status, period of service, and sex, not seasonally adjusted.” Table A-40 is titled “Employment status of persons 18 years and over by veteran status, age, and sex .” Data for the prior month is usually released on the first Friday of the month but was released March 8 for Feb. 2013, since the first Friday was March 1.
The overall unemployment rate dropped significantly from January, 7.6 percent to 6.9 percent. The February rate was little changed from the Feb. 2012 rate of 7 percent. The BLS first began tracking the unemployment rate for veterans in May, 2006. The lowest annual unemployment rate for veterans was in 2007, when it averaged 3.8 percent. The highest annual rate was in 2010, with 8.7 percent. The annual unemployment rate for veterans in 2012 was 7 percent.
The BLS has kept data on unemployment among veterans since 2006. The peak rate for all veterans was in Jan. 2011, at 9.9 percent unemployment. The yearly average unemployment for veterans in 2012 was 7 percent. It was 8.3 percent in 2011 and 8.7 percent in 2010.
The oldest veterans are seeing generally higher unemployment rates than last year. The 2012 unemployment rate was 6.4 percent while in 2011 the rate was 7.6 percent. Gulf War II veterans have had high and largely unchanged unemployment rates since 2008. In 2009, it was 10.2 percent. In 2010, it was 11.5 percent and in 2011 it rose to 12.1 percent. The rate was 9.9 percent for 2012. Since Jan. 2009, this group of veterans has seen unemployment rates over 10 percent for 36 of the 50 months on record.
Female veterans had a record unemployment rate of 13.2 percent in Sept. 2012. The rate was just 5 percent in April 2012 so this group is recovering from a major spike in unemployment. Unemployment among male veterans had fallen from May 2012 through but spiked in Jan. 2013. The unemployment rate for male veterans was 8.3 percent for 2011 and dropped to 6.9 percent on average for 2012.
