Today, veteran unemployment sits at 3.2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Although there’s always more work to be done, that kind of number reflects more than a decade of effort in helping America’s veterans find work. It simply wasn’t always so low.
In 2011, the veteran unemployment rate was a staggering 8.3%, while the rate for nonveterans was 3.6%. When parsed for the era in which those veterans served, it could get much worse. Gulf War-era veterans experienced as high as 30.2% unemployment for men and 36.1% for women.