2017 Employment Situation of Veterans — 2018-03-22

The unemployment rate for veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces at any time since September 2001--a group referred to as Gulf War-era II veterans-- edged down to 4.5 percent in 2017, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The jobless rate for all veterans declined from 4.3 percent to 3.7 percent in 2017. About 41 percent of Gulf War-era II veterans had a service-connected disability in August 2017, compared with 24 percent of all veterans. This information was obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 households that provides data on employment and unemployment in the United States. Data about veterans are collected monthly in the CPS; these monthly data are the source of the 2017 annual averages presented in this news release.