2009 Employment Situation of Veterans — 2010-03-12

The unemployment rate for veterans who served in the military since September 2001--a group referred to as Gulf War-era II veterans--was 10.2 percent in 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The jobless rate for veterans of all eras combined was 8.1 percent. About 21 percent of Gulf War-era II veterans reported hav- ing a service-connected disability in August 2009, compared with about 13 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 offi- cial statistics on employment and unemployment in the United States. Data about veterans are collected monthly in the CPS; those monthly data are the source of the 2009 annual averages presented in this re- lease. In August 2009, a supplement to the CPS collected additional information about veterans on topics such as service-connected disabil- ity. Information from the supplement also is presented in this re- lease.