Veterans in the workforce posted another solid showing in the final monthly jobs report of the Biden administration with a 2.8% unemployment rate that was well below the national average, the Labor Department said Friday.
In a sign of the economy's resilience, the 2.8% jobless rate for all veterans matched the rate for December 2023, and once again was better than the 4.1% unemployment rate for the general population last month, which was down a tick from 4.2% in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
The subset of statistics for the post-9/11 generation of veterans showed that their unemployment rate, which tends to fluctuate more than other subsets, bumped up from 3.1% in November to 3.9% in December but was still below the 4% rate that most economists view as full employment.
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In a statement, Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said the BLS report also showed that the economy added 256,000 jobs in December, which was "well above market expectations and reflected a robust and resilient labor market."
She said the outgoing administration was handing off to President-elect Donald Trump "an economy and a labor market that are strong and resilient, with opportunities for workers at their core."
President Joe Biden also cited the BLS report to contrast his record with what he said was Trump's in his first term ending in January 2021.
"Although I inherited the worst economic crisis in decades with unemployment above 6% when I took office," Biden said in a statement, "we've had the lowest average unemployment rate of any administration in 50 years with unemployment at 4.1% as I leave."
In addition, "with today's report of 256,000 new jobs in December, we have created over 16.6 million jobs over the course of my administration, and this is the only administration in history to have created jobs every single month," Biden said.
However, archived BLS monthly job reports show that the economy was doing well in the first Trump administration until the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in early 2020. In January 2020, the unemployment rate was 3.2%, the BLS reported, but by April 2020 the rate had spiked to 12.1%.
The labor market performance of veterans can be difficult to assess since they make up a relatively small sample in the general population, but "the top-line numbers are great" in the BLS report and "the trend is definitely very good for veterans," said Robert Frick, corporate economist for Navy Federal Credit Union.
In addition, "veterans tend to skew to the higher-end professions" in the job market, partly as a result of the military's preparation of service members for the transition to civilian life and the GI Bill's education benefits, Frick said.
"We're still in a good place" overall for veterans in the jobs market, said Kevin Rasch, the Warriors to Work regional director at the Wounded Warrior Project.
He also said that transitioning service members tend to focus on higher-end jobs in technology and noted the Wounded Warrior Project's Transition Ready program that assists service members with information on job opportunities.
Although the December jobs report was positive for veterans, Rasch cited some numbers for female veterans that could become troubling.
The BLS report showed that the unemployment rate for all women veterans was 3.7% in December, but the rate for post-9/11 women veterans was 5.3%.
"It's something to keep an eye on," Rasch said.
Related: Veterans Lead the Way in Robust Labor Market with Low Jobless Rate of 2.8%
