The Bureau of Labor Statistics has been gathering data on military veterans in the workforce since 2008. It allows the BLS to include employment and unemployment estimates in its monthly Employment Summary. Veterans are classified into four groups, “eras”, for many purposes. Two categories have some logic to them, Gulf War I era and Gulf War II era veterans.
The other two categories are a mix of age groups and time periods on active duty. The oldest vets are in the category “World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam-era veterans.” The remaining former service members are contained in a category titled “Veterans of other service periods.” Including Vietnam era vets with WWII and Korea seems an awkward choice.
It may be that, in 2008, it made sense to include the three wars since most Vietnam vets would have reached retirement age. It may also have to do with the controversial nature of Vietnam era service. Still, it places the very elderly veterans of WWII and Korea in with 11 years of Vietnam vets, who are much younger.
The “other service period” category is also a mix. It includes those who served 1947-1950, 1955-1964, and 1976 to 1990. These are the Cold War veterans. Those before 1964 were mostly draftees while those in the 1976 to 1990 period were volunteers.
The mix of years in these two BLS categories makes it very difficult to sort out veterans by age and era. We can look at age data, and these are estimates from Nov. 2013. There were 8,948,000 military veterans over age 65. Some 20 percent, 1,847,000, were in the labor force and they had an unemployment rate of 6.1 percent.
Female vets over age 65 represent just 3.1 percent of the total. There are 41,000 of these women still working and their unemployment rate is a miniscule 3.2 percent. Male veterans over 65 had a 6.2 percent unemployment rate.
Looking at estimates for World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam-era veterans, we find that they had an unemployment rate of 5.3 percent in Nov. 2013, versus 5.9 percent in Nov. 2012. The labor force participation rate for military veterans from this era was 28 percent. Nearly three quarters of all veterans from this era, 6.9 million, are no longer working or looking for work.
Our Cold Warriors had an unemployment rate of 5.4 percent in November. That is well down from 6 percent the prior year. Of the 5.5 million vets who fall into this category, 55 percent are sill working or looking for work. Women represent 12 percent of all veterans from this era, and 405,000 of them are still working. Their November unemployment rate was up from last year, 7.7 versus 6.5 percent. The number of unemployed women vets of this era rose from 26,000 to 34,000.
These are our oldest veterans. Many of the men were draftees and not volunteers. While one era covers three major wars, those who served in the era the BLS calls “ Veterans of other service periods” also faced hardship and the threat of violent death. Korea took the lives of Americans during this era, and the actions in Grenada and Panama are also in the “other” category. These oldest military veterans are still contributing to the U.S. economy, still working. The women who served before they were allowed in the “real” military are also well worth noting.
