---
title: "Most-recent veterans say military prepared them for civilian work"
description: "Share of post-9/11 veterans who say their military experience was relevant to their civilian job."
date: "2013-11-11"
authors:
  - name: "Drew DeSilver"
    job_title: "Senior Writer/Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/drew-desilver/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2013/11/11/most-recent-veterans-say-military-prepared-them-for-civilian-work/"
categories:
  - "Comparison of Generations"
  - "Military & Veterans"
  - "Military & Veterans"
  - "Military & Veterans"
---

# Most-recent veterans say military prepared them for civilian work

The newest cohort of veterans -- those who served in the U.S. armed forces since September 2001 -- see considerably more connection between their military and civilian careers than earlier generations.

About three-in-five (60.6%) of post-9/11 veterans said their military experience applied "a lot" or "some" to their most recent civilian job, compared with 41.1% of all veterans, according to [a 2010 survey conducted for the Department of Veterans Affairs](http://www.va.gov/vetdata/docs/SurveysAndStudies/NVSSurveyFinalWeightedReport.pdf).

[![veterans](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2013/11/veterans.png)](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2013/11/veterans.png)

The same survey found that post-9/11 veterans were more likely to say they felt "well" or "very well" prepared to enter the civilian job market when they left the service, versus 40.5% of all veterans. However, only about a third (34.1%) of veterans aged 18 to 30 said they felt well- or very well-prepared.

Of the 21.23 million living U.S. veterans in 2012, about 2.75 million (12.9%) served at some point after September 2001, according to [Census Bureau estimates](http://factfinder2.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_1YR/B21002). The unemployment rate among those veterans was [10% last month](http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t05.htm), versus 7% for the entire [civilian noninstitutional population](http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t01.htm), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The largest subgroup of veterans remains those who served during the Vietnam War: more than 7 million, accounting for nearly a third of all veterans. According to the VA survey, about 40% of Vietnam-era veterans felt their military skills applied to their most recent civilian jobs, about as many as said they felt well- or very well-prepared to enter the civilian job market.