Presentation by Heidi Golding and Elizabeth Bass, analysts in CBO’s National Security Division, at the 92nd annual conference of the Western Economic Association International.
From 2008 to 2015, male veterans ages 22 to 44 who left active-duty service after September 2001 had experiences in the labor market similar to those of civilian men, although the youngest veterans had somewhat higher unemployment rates.
To help service members transitioning to civilian life, the Defense Department spent $310 million (in 2017 dollars) on unemployment benefits in 2016, down from $1 billion in 2011. Nearly half of soldiers who left the active Army in 2013 applied for those benefits (that share has probably fallen since then).
