The US Census Bureau partners with the Department of Defense to track how Armed Forces veterans fare in the labor market when they return to civilian life. More than 2.8 million enlisted service members were honorably discharged across all six branches from 2002 to 2021.

New Census Bureau data illustrates how they made the move to civilian jobs, by branch of service, occupation, and when they left the military.

The data show important differences in earnings and employment across military rank and occupation, regardless of the branch of military service. For example, infantry and combat veterans (or their equivalent in certain branches) have lower civilian earnings and employment rates than those with more specialized military training and work experience.

Former drone operators and operational intelligence specialists have some of the highest earnings in the civilian job market, particularly veterans of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The specialized skills developed in these military occupations are highly valued by civilian employers in a wide range of industries, such as professional, scientific, and technical services, manufacturing, and the federal government.

In contrast, Air Force and Coast Guard veterans who worked as aircraft mechanics have relatively lower earnings, which may reflect the narrower set of civilian job options that match their skills. Veterans formerly employed in infantry or combat jobs have relatively lower earnings in the civilian labor market. This is true across all branches of the military.

Infantry veterans of the Army and Marine Corps primarily end up working in the administrative and support services, manufacturing, and retail trade sectors. Air Force veterans are primarily employed in professional services. Many Coast Guard veterans find employment in public administration.

The highest paying jobs for veterans are mainly in the professional services sector, especially for Air Force veterans, where security and weapons development firms are likely to value veterans’ experience with military technology.

Veterans from some demographic groups have varied experiences when entering the civilian labor market. The typical earnings for women, for example, are lower than that of men one year after leaving service, regardless of their branch of service.

Among veterans of the Army and Marine Corps, this gap in initial median annual earnings has averaged about $5,600 from 2002-2020. For Air Force and Navy veterans, however, this initial earnings gap is about twice as large over the same period.

In contrast, earnings differences across race and ethnicity tend to be smaller across all branches.

Prior Census Bureau research showed that Army veterans leaving  military service during the Great Recession were half as likely to be steadily employed after one year compared to those who left when the labor market was stronger.

With the benefit of additional data, we see a similar pattern across all military branches: new veterans were more likely to find steady work as the labor market improved after 2011.

The “Pandemic Recession” of 2020 appears to have affected new veterans less than the 2007-2009 Great Recession, except for Air Force veterans. They fared worse than other veterans, likely because of disruptions to air travel in the wake of the pandemic.

 

About the data

VEO statistics are generated by matching anonymized DOD veteran records to the Census Bureau’s national longitudinal database of jobs. The number of Space Force veterans who are enlisted is too small to include in VEO statistics at this time.