10 percent of recent veterans are unemployed

In October, 6.9 percent of U.S. veterans were unemployed. The unemployment rate for veterans who have served since 9/11 is 10 percent—or 256,000 people. "That's the same rate as it was a year ago, and it's a high jobless rate than it is for non-veterans, after adjusting for age and demographic factors," Brad Plumer reports for The Washington Post. 

Council of Economic Advisers chart

Here are three reasons veterans, who disproportionately come from rural areas, may be experiencing difficulties finding work:

1. Disability rates are higher among veterans. A 2011 Pew Charitable Trusts survey reported that 44 percent of veterans had a disability related to their service time, and the unemployment rate for them was 12.5 percent. "A 2011 Pew survey found that 44 percent of veterans who served since 9/11 were having trouble adjusting to civilian life," Plumer writes, especially those who were subjected to serious injuries or faced a particularly traumatic experience.

2. Veterans may not have enough civilian work experience. Though they gained useful traits like leadership and discipline and sometime even special skills like health care or information training, but their lack of civilian work experience still puts them at a disadvantage, especially in the current economy when employers are even less inclined to take risks. 

3. Complex licensing requirements are also an obstacle. Even if veterans have the necessary skills to perform a certain job, they still have to "go through a fresh set of licensing hurdles," Plumer writes. A report from the White House earlier this year said, "Despite having valuable military experience, veterans frequently find it difficult to obtain formal private sector recognition of their military training, experiences and skill sets through civilian certification and licensure. This also makes it difficult for the private sector to capitalize on the resources and time spent training and educating service members." Many states have worked to remove some of these obstacles, but these improvements are not universal. 

This situation will become more concerning as military veterans increase in number in the next few years. "Each year the military separates between 240,000 and 360,000 service members, and as we draw down from the war in Afghanistan, the military is expected so separate a million service members over the next several years," the report said. (Read more)