Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Unemployment rate 5.5 percent in 2019 for Gulf War-era II veterans with a disability

March 25, 2020

Gulf War-era II veterans with a service-connected disability had an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent in August 2019. That was not statistically different from the 4.4-percent rate for Gulf War-era II veterans with no service-connected disability. Over the year, both rates were little changed. Gulf War-era II veterans with a service-connected disability usually have not had an unemployment rate that is statistically different from those without a service-connected disability. Gulf War-era II veterans served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces anywhere in the world since September 2001.

Unemployment rate for Gulf War-era II veterans by presence and degree of service-connected disability, 2009–19
Year Without a service-connected disability With a service-connected disability Less than 30 percent disability rating 30 to 50 percent disability rating 60 percent or higher disability rating

2009

12.7% 11.8% 12.2% 9.8% 10.7%

2010

13.6 11.2 13.9 13.0 0.8

2011

9.5 12.1 12.6 10.4 14.4

2012

12.5 8.0 5.6 8.4 9.2

2013

11.1 8.6 10.8 5.7 11.6

2014

7.8 9.1 10.7 5.2 11.4

2015

4.8 5.5 3.0 1.9 8.6

2016

5.7 5.4 4.0 3.5 5.4

2017

4.8 3.9 2.1 1.5 6.3

2018

3.3 5.3 1.8 7.4 6.2

2019

4.4 5.5 2.3 1.7 9.4

Veterans are assigned a disability rating by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the U.S. Department of Defense. Ratings range from 0 to 100 percent, in increments of 10 percentage points, depending on the severity of the condition. For Gulf War-era II veterans, those with a service-connected disability rating of 60 percent or higher had an unemployment rate of 9.4 percent in August 2019, much higher than the rate of 2.3 percent for those with a service-connected disability rating of less than 30 percent. The unemployment rates for both groups changed little over the year.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. For more information, see “Employment Situation of Veterans — 2019.” Veterans are men and women who previously served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces and were civilians when they were surveyed. People on active duty are not included in the survey. Typically, the CPS Veterans supplement is conducted in August. In 2010, however, the supplement was conducted in July.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Unemployment rate 5.5 percent in 2019 for Gulf War-era II veterans with a disability at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/unemployment-rate-5-point-5-percent-in-2019-for-gulf-war-era-2-veterans-with-a-disability.htm (visited November 09, 2024).

OF INTEREST
spotlight
Recent editions of Spotlight on Statistics


triangle