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Transitioning from the Military to the Civilian Workforce: The Role of Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Servicemembers 1 (May 16, 2017)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo3520 and id is 1 raw text is: MAY 2017 Transitioning From the Military to the Civilian Workforce: The Role of Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Servicemembers People who leave the military often face different chal- lenges when searching for civilian employment than people who move from one civilian job to another. The recession of 2007 to 2009 increased policymakers' focus on how well veterans who left active-duty service during or after the recession have fared in the civilian labor market. In its new report Labor Force Experiences of Recent Veterans, the Congressional Budget Office com- pares the labor market outcomes of veterans who have left active-duty service since September 2001 with the outcomes of civilians (people who have never served on active duty in the armed forces).) In this companion report, CBO describes the use of unemployment benefits among service members who have recently transitioned to the civilian workforce. Unemployed veterans who are newly separated from the military's active component (the regular Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Air Force) or who are deactivated after serving on active duty in the reserve component (the National Guard or Reserves) may be eligible for a special type of unemployment insurance, called Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Servicemembers (UCX). The UCX program is administered by the states on behalf of the Department of Labor, but it is paid for by the military, as the recipients' former employer. In all, the Department of Defense (DoD) spent $310 million on UCX benefits in 2016, down from a peak of $1.0 billion in 2011. (Those amounts, which are expressed in 2017 1. See Congressional Budget Office, Labor Force Experiences of Recent Veterans (May 2017), www.cbo.gov/publication/52418. dollars, include spending for Extended Benefits, addi- tional weeks of unemployment benefits that are available in states with especially high unemployment rates.) CBO analyzed data from the Army about the UCX program in fiscal year 2013 (the most recent year for which complete data were available when the analysis was conducted). In that year, nearly half of the soldiers who left the Army's active component applied for UCX benefits, as did about 20 percent of Army reservists who had served for at least 90 days on active duty and then been deactivated. Those data are only for the Army and cover only one year, so the results do not necessarily reflect the Army's experience in other years-particularly as the economy has improved-or the experiences of the other military services. However, because veterans gener- ally begin receiving UCX benefits shortly after they leave the military, those data suggest that many soldiers did not or could not find a job near the end of their Army enlistment or soon thereafter. Transitioning to the Civilian Workforce Entering or reentering the workforce can be difficult for anyone, but veterans can face special obstacles associated with their military service. Partly for that reason, the fed- eral government operates various education and employ- ment assistance programs that help many service mem- bers who are leaving, or have recently left, active duty. Other public and private entities also offer programs that can ease the financial burden or provide skills to veterans transitioning to the civilian labor market. Note: Unless otherwise indicated, all years referred to in this report are calendar years, and all dollar amounts are expressed in 2017 dollars. Amounts are adjusted to remove the effects of inflation using the gross domestic product price index, with values of that index for 2017 projected by the Congressional Budget Office. Numbers in the text and table may not add up to totals because of rounding. Data underlying the figure are posted along with this report on CBO's website.

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