Long-term unemployment worsens for vets

Report: Long-term unemployment worsens for vets
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Nov 3, 2011 13:26:06 EDT
For veterans of all ages, long-term unemployment has become a serious problem, according to a new Labor Department report.

For Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans, whose unemployment rate averaged 11.5 percent last year, 36 percent were unemployed for 27 weeks or longer, according to the Nov. 3 report.

Veterans of other eras were less likely to be unemployed, but those who lost their jobs faced a much longer search. For veterans 65 and older trying to re-enter the workforce after losing a job, 53 percent were unemployed for 27 weeks or longer. The median duration of unemployment for these older veterans was 31 weeks, the report said.

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Long-term unemployment is also slightly worse for veterans than nonveterans, the report said, with veterans having a median duration of 24 weeks of unemployment, one more than for nonveterans.
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