The Veteran Jobless Rate Just Dropped Again

The Labor Department's final jobless report before Veterans Day showed the unemployment rate for all veterans came down slightly to 3.0% in October, and fell a full percentage point for post-9/11 veterans, to 3.5%.

The overall veteran unemployment rate is down from 3.1% in September, according to the new report, released Friday.

The 3.5% rate for post-9/11 veterans, classified as Gulf War-era II veterans by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was down from 4.5% in September, but the rate for post-9/11 veterans has shown more fluctuation than those for veterans of all eras. In August, the post-9/11 veterans unemployment rate was 3.4%.

Overall, the economy added 128,000 jobs in October, the BLS said, but the unemployment rate for the U.S. population as a whole ticked up from a 50-year low of 3.5% to 3.6%, possibly due to the General Motors strike, which ended last week.

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On Twitter, President Donald Trump said, "Wow a blowout JOBS number. This is far greater than expectations. USA Rocks!"

Among the major labor groups in the general population, the unemployment rates showed little or no change in October, the BLS reported. For both adult men and adult women, the rate is 3.2%.

The unemployment rate for veterans of all eras of 3.0% compared to the 2.9% unemployment rate for all veterans in October 2018, it said.

The unemployment rate for all male veterans in October was 2.6%. For all female veterans, the rate was 5.7%, compared to 3.0% for all female veterans in October 2018. The unemployment rates for women veterans have also shown more fluctuation than those for males.

For post-9/11 male veterans, the unemployment rate in October was 3.2%. But the rate for female post-9/11 veterans went up month over month, from 7% in September to 9.5% in October.

For Gulf War-era I veterans of Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the unemployment rate in October was 3.5% compared to 2.6% in September; for World War II, Korean War and Vietnam-era veterans, the unemployment rate was 2.3% in October, compared to 2.2% in September.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

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