Upbeat jobs report brings good news for vets, too

Upbeat jobs report brings good news for vets, too
Stars and Stripes
By LEO SHANE III
Published: October 5, 2012

WASHINGTON – The nation’s positive jobs report on Friday included good news about veterans, with the unemployment rate for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan era dropping below 10 percent for the sixth month this year.

Bureau of Labor Statistics officials estimate the September unemployment rate for that group at 9.7 percent, more than one percent less than the August rate. For 2012, the monthly average unemployment rate sits at 9.8 percent for those veterans, well below the 12.1 percent rate of 2011 and on pace for the lowest mark since 2009.

But those young veteran employment numbers lag behind figures for other veterans and the overall population. BLS officials put nationwide unemployment at 7.8 percent for September, the lowest since January 2009. The overall veterans unemployment rate nudged up slightly from last month, to 6.7 percent in September.
read more here