Eight years ago, in the wake of the Great Recession, unemployment rates for the latest generation of veterans had spiked to crisis levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leaders across federal and state governments<\/a>, some of America\u2019s most well-known companies and veterans service organizations sprang into action. They formed veteran hiring coalitions, marshaled resources to help post-9\/11 veterans, conducted academic research, passed new rules and legislation, and instituted vet recruiting quotas<\/a> and goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eight years later, unemployment among post-9\/11 veterans is the lowest it\u2019s ever been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the first time ever, the unemployment rate for the latest generation of veterans dropped below 4 percent in 2018, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 3.8-percent annual unemployment rate for 2018 continues a seven-year trend of declines since 2011, when post-9\/11 veteran unemployment peaked at 12.1 percent \u2013 more than triple the 2018 rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For veterans of all generations, the unemployment rate was similarly low, dropping to 3.5 percent from 3.7 percent last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These figures are below what economists have traditionally considered \u201cfull employment,\u201d and some would say it\u2019s worth celebrating \u2014 especially since the 3.8-percent rate was on par with nonveterans in 2018. And nationally, the economy is looking up, with the U.S. hitting three consecutive months of a 3.7 percent unemployment rate last year, a low the country hadn\u2019t seen since the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRight now, I would say it\u2019s a massively good time to look and find something,\u201d said Robert Lerman, a labor economist at the Urban Institute. The declining veteran unemployment rate, in particular, \u201ccalls for a big celebration.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s also something that we want to try to sustain, which is the harder part, but you know for now, jobs are plentiful, and that\u2019s a lot better than jobs not being plentiful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what the data doesn\u2019t show, Lerman and others point out, is whether those jobs represent meaningful, gainful employment \u2014 and whether they fully utilize veterans\u2019 skill sets. That, advocates say, is where we should focus next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n