Unemployment for post-9/11 veterans ticked up somewhat in April to 6.9 percent, government data show.
But even with the increase, this marks the third consecutive month that the unemployment measure held below 7 percent, which would have been unfathomable three or four years ago.
The national unemployment rate, meanwhile, dipped to 5.4 percent in April from March’s 5.5 percent mark as the country added 223,000 jobs last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For the latest generation of veterans, five of the last six monthly unemployment reports have pegged unemployment below 7 percent, an unprecedented streak. In fact, the numbers are all below the lowest annual unemployment rate recorded for post-9/11 veterans: last year’s 7.2 percent mark.
The veterans measure is based on a much smaller sample size than the national unemployment report and can sometimes fluctuate dramatically as a result, so government statisticians advise focusing on broader trends rather than any single month’s jobs report.
Indeed, in 2014, every monthly jobs report except one was at least a full point higher or lower than the previous month’s. Lows such as May 2014’s 5.3 percent mark were hard to make sense of when quickly followed by highs such as July’s 9.2 percent.
Yet this year’s numbers seem to be holding steady: 6.7 percent in February, 6.5 percent in March, 6.9 percent in April. Taken together, the data seem to make clear that a sub-7 percent unemployment rate for the latest generation of veterans is reality, and not just wishful thinking based on a flukey jobs report or two.
The employment picture for veterans of all generations is even better. April’s unemployment rate slipped to 4.7 percent from March’s 4.9 percent mark. Six of the past eight months have seen that number below 5 percent.
