Reuters reports that “unemployment among U.S. military veterans eased last year, government data showed on Thursday, but remained far higher than the national average rate for the civilian population.”  

“The unemployment rate among veterans who had joined the military after September 11, 2001, averaged 9.0 percent last year, down from 9.9 percent in 2012, the Labor Department said. That was about 1.6 percentage points above the rate for the civilian population.”  

“Joblessness among this group is set to worsen as the war in Afghanistan winds down. Pentagon’s proposed budget calls for the U.S. Army to shrink to around 450,000 from a war-time high of 570,000.”  

“The Obama administration and the U.S. Congress have pushed forward an array of measures, including tax credits for companies employing veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.”