The unemployment rate for 9/11-era veterans dipped in February and the rate gap between those veterans and the civilian workforce closed to the lowest margin since mid-2012, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Female veterans continue to be harder hit by joblessness than men.
Some 203,000 9/11-era veteras were unemployed in February — 49,000 fewer than January. Among women in the 9/11 cohort, the unemployment rate has averaged 11.8% compared to 10.4% for men.
Overall, the 2012 unemployment rate for 9/11-era veterans has fallen significantly since 2011 — 9.9% for 2012 vs. 12.1% the year before. That was twice the drop as the non-veteran population (8.7% v. 7.9%).
Last month’s rate was higher than it was in February 2012 (7.6% then vs. 9.4% last month) but that may in part be because of a temporary one-month drop a year ago.
Charts below are based on extracts of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- NSJI collection of related data (downloadable): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhAxyUlnJGbpdGNQekl3VDhGQUUzNzhteXF1eWNTb2c&usp=sharing
- Full details on 2012 data: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/vet.htm
- To extract your own historical data: www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab5.htm
- Washington Post today puts a human face on the problem.