Unemployment, etc among veterans vs non veterans

[jyl]

After reading Shaun's thread, I went looking for information on how veterans fare after leaving the military.

Here are some things I found.

Why Is Veteran Unemployment So High? | RAND
Young veterans have about 3 percentage points higher unemployment than young non veterans, but this difference shrinks rapidly as the time since the veteran's discharge grows. In other words, if you look at veterans some years after their discharge, they don't have a meaningfully higher unemployment rate than non veterans.

Table A-5. Employment status of the civilian population 18 years and over by veteran status, period of service, and sex, not seasonally adjusted
If you look at all veterans, they have lower unemployment rate than the non veteran population. Veterans of the most recent wars have higher unemployment rate than older veterans, but their rate is still lower than non veterans. For some reason, female veterans of the most recent war have a very high unemployment rate.

And unemployment for all groups has fallen dramatically in the past few years. Even from 2014 to 2015. That's a good thing.

Anyone else have data, facts, numbers to add?

Like, how do average earnings look for veterans vs non veterans?. Health?. Education?. And what are the homeless statistics really?. I think I read that about 10% of the homeless are veterans; but don't veterans also represent about 10% of the population?

[jyl]

Here is some more

http://www.benefits.va.gov/benefits/docs/VeteranEconomicOpportunityReport2015.PDF
Lots of info on veteran unemployment and earnings. Half of veterans are unemployed for a substantial period (20 weeks) after discharge. Veterans have unemployment rate lower than, and earnings higher than, non veterans - but if you adjust for demographics, veterans have unemployment rate higher than non veterans, and earnings (slightly) lower than, non veterans.

I'm wondering, by the way, what this looks like if you split veterans between officers and enlisted men.

[John Rogers]

Having taught evening computer science and computer business related classes since 1989, I have found that the students I get are pretty serious about wanting a degree and in about 20% of the students they already have one and sometimes two. Being in the San Diego area we get a lot of technical ex or retired Navy and Marines. Some try the contractor route and end up working on the same gear they had while in the service but get tired of it and want a change. Most are mid level or senior level enlisted unless they were an officer with some weird degree and can not find a job. With the new type of VA benefits now it really pays for them to go to school and at least pass.

The people who get jobs quickly are the Navy "IT" rates, aviation and electronic rates. If they have a security clearance in most cases they get hired the day after they get out. The people who have job finding issues seem to be the regular Marines and Army with a non technical type of job and they end up in my classes.

[fintstone]

An awful lot of new veterans are unemployed because they are going to college on the GI bill, getting a housing allowance and unemployment. There are plenty of jobs for anyone who wants one.

[gacook]

I dunno about statistics, but of all the vets I've personally known, none are homeless. All have landed decent to great jobs right out of service and have continued on with their lives. The ONLY ones I've known who had employment issues were guys who actually got kicked out for disciplinary issues or drug violations.