{"id":10384,"date":"2019-09-17T13:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T18:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/how-veterans-and-non-veterans-fare-in-the-u-s-job-market\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T01:18:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T06:18:44","slug":"how-veterans-and-non-veterans-fare-in-the-u-s-job-market","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2019\/09\/17\/how-veterans-and-non-veterans-fare-in-the-u-s-job-market\/","title":{"rendered":"How veterans and non-veterans fare in the U.S. job market"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Job seekers meet with a Sacramento Police Department recruiter at a job fair in San Francisco. More than 115 employers were on hand to recruit veterans seeking jobs. (Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n\n

Most U.S. veterans who served in the post-9\/11 era say their military service was useful in giving them skills and training needed for jobs outside the military, a new Pew Research Center report<\/a> finds. And in fact, veterans of prime working age generally fare at least as well in the U.S. job market as non-veterans, though there are some differences in the work they do and in which industries.<\/p>\n\n

\"U.S.<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Overall, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for veterans ages 18 and older has been below that of non-veterans nearly every month since January 2003, which is as far back as data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a> goes. In August, the jobless rate for veterans stood at 3.4%, versus 3.6% for non-veterans.<\/p>\n\n

For both veterans and non-veterans, unemployment rates have been falling from a high of more than 9% in 2010. Veterans\u2019 unemployment bottomed out at a seasonally adjusted 2.4% this past April, while the lowest rate among non-veterans was 3.5% in June.<\/p>\n\n

The overall unemployment figures, though, obscure considerable variation among veterans and non-veterans in different age groups. That\u2019s important because the nation\u2019s 18.8 million veterans<\/a> skew considerably older than the much larger non-veteran population: Roughly half (46.9%) of veterans are ages 65 and older, according to BLS data, compared with 19.1% of non-veterans.<\/p>\n\n

\"Unemployment<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Older people generally are less likely to work, or seek work, than younger people \u2013 a statistic called the labor force participation rate. While more non-veterans 65 and older are working or seeking work<\/a> than in previous years (20.5% as of August), the share of 65-and-older veterans participating in the labor force has been trending lower since 2016, reaching 18.5% in August.<\/p>\n\n

For the youngest group of veterans, those ages 18 to 24, the unemployment rate was just 2.6% in August, versus 8% for non-veterans in that same age group. But among veterans ages 35 to 44, the situation was reversed: Their unemployment rate was 4.8% in August, compared with 2.7% for comparable non-veterans. (The age group data is only available on a non-seasonally adjusted basis.)<\/p>\n\n

Because the age distributions of veterans and non-veterans differ so much, there\u2019s a significant difference in the two groups\u2019 employment-to-population ratios \u2013 the share of the total civilian non-institutional population that reports having a job.<\/p>\n\n

For the 18-and-older population, the employment-to-population ratio is consistently higher for non-veterans than for veterans: In August, for instance, 63.3% of non-veterans 18 and over were employed, compared with only 47.3% of veterans. But the veteran figures are pulled down by the large share of those 65 and older, relatively few of whom are in the labor force at all.<\/p>\n\n

If you compare veterans and non-veterans in the prime working years of 25 to 54, the pattern flips: Since May 2006, when the data series began, working-age veterans almost always have had a higher employment ratio. (Last month, the ratios for the two groups were nearly identical: 79.5% of veterans ages 25 to 54 and 79.7% of non-veterans in that same age bracket were employed.)<\/p>\n\n

Veterans and non-veterans also have somewhat different employment patterns, both in the work they do and the industries they do it in.<\/p>\n\n

\"U.S.<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Last year, 7.2% of employed veterans worked in installation, maintenance and repair occupations, versus 3% of employed non-veterans, according to BLS data. Around one-in-ten veterans (9.8%) worked in transportation and material moving occupations, compared with 6.2% of non-veterans. Veterans were somewhat less<\/em> likely than non-veterans to work in office and administrative support occupations (8.1% vs. 11.6%) and in professional occupations (20.6% vs. 23.9%).<\/p>\n\n

Veterans are far more likely than non-veterans to work for the federal government: 10% of employed veterans did so last year, compared with just 2% of non-veterans. They also were somewhat more likely than non-veterans to work in manufacturing and the transportation and utilities sector.<\/p>\n\n

On the other hand, veterans were notably less<\/em> likely to work in education and health services: 8.4% of employed veterans worked in that sector last year, compared with 15.6% of non-veterans. They also were less likely than non-veterans to work in leisure and hospitality industries, financial services and retail.<\/p>\n\n

\"U.S.<\/a><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veterans of prime working age generally fare at least as well as non-veterans in the U.S. job market, though there are differences in the work they do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[234,81,100,366,442,246],"bylines":[842],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[521,525,529,526,527,528,522,520,523,517,518,519],"class_list":["post-10384","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-business-workplace","category-military-veterans-2","category-military-veterans-1","category-military-veterans-3","category-unemployment-2","category-unemployment-1","bylines-drew-desilver","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-data-labs","research-teams-global","research-teams-global-migration-and-demography","research-teams-internet","research-teams-journalism","research-teams-methods","research-teams-pew-research-center","research-teams-politics","research-teams-race-and-ethnicity","research-teams-religion","research-teams-science","research-teams-social-trends"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":667,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2019\/09\/17\/how-veterans-and-non-veterans-fare-in-the-u-s-job-market\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":19882,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/09\/FT_19.09.11_VeteranEmployment_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/09\/FT_19.09.11_VeteranEmployment_feature-jpg.webp?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":19882,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/09\/FT_19.09.11_VeteranEmployment_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/09\/FT_19.09.11_VeteranEmployment_feature-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":19882,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/09\/FT_19.09.11_VeteranEmployment_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/09\/FT_19.09.11_VeteranEmployment_feature-jpg.webp?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":19882,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/09\/FT_19.09.11_VeteranEmployment_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/09\/FT_19.09.11_VeteranEmployment_feature-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":19882,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/09\/FT_19.09.11_VeteranEmployment_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/09\/FT_19.09.11_VeteranEmployment_feature-jpg.webp?w=720&h=405&crop=1","width":720,"height":405,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":19882,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/09\/FT_19.09.11_VeteranEmployment_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/09\/FT_19.09.11_VeteranEmployment_feature-jpg.webp?w=1200&h=628&crop=1","width":1200,"height":628,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"How the civilian jobs of U.S. veterans and non-veterans differ","description":"Veterans of prime working age generally fare at least as well as non-veterans in the U.S. job market, though there are differences in the work they do.","og_title":"How veterans and non-veterans fare in the U.S. job market","og_description":"Veterans of prime working age generally fare at least as well as non-veterans in the U.S. job market, though there are differences in the work they do.","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"twitter_title":"How veterans and non-veterans fare in the U.S. job market","twitter_description":"Veterans of prime working age generally fare at least as well as non-veterans in the U.S. job market, though there are differences in the work they do.","og_image":19882,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[{"key":"b4c479ea6e9e1e003b72aecd3177ad30","termId":842}],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/10384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/short-read"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10384"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/10384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101067,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/10384\/revisions\/101067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10384"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=10384"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=10384"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=10384"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=10384"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=10384"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=10384"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=10384"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=10384"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=10384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}