2003 Employment Situation of Veterans — 2004-07-27

Veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces were less likely to be unemployed than nonveterans in August 2003, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Veterans had an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, compared with 5.9 percent for nonveterans. Veterans who had been recently discharged from the Armed Forces had a jobless rate of 6.9 percent. Nine percent of all veterans had a service-connected disability. (Beginning with this release, the focus has been expanded to cover all veterans, not just those who served during the Vietnam era.) The survey of veterans was conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau as a special supplement to the August 2003 Current Population Survey (CPS). The 2003 supplement was co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Labor's Veterans Employment and Training Service. Such a biennial supplement has been conducted since 1985.