Unemployment Benefits Among Newly Discharged Marines More Than Doubled Since 2008

The unemployment rate among newly discharged veterans has doubled since 2008, USA Today reported Thursday. Here’s what USA Today found:

Bureau of Labor Statistics:

• The military paid $450 million in unemployment benefits in 2008 and $882 million in 2010.
• Male veterans ages 18-24 saw a jobless rate of more than 30 percent, where civilian males of the same age group were at 18 percent unemployment.

Department of Labor Statistics: 

• In 2010, more than 90,000 newly discharged veterans were unemployed for several months.
• State unemployment lasts up to 26 weeks and newly discharged veterans spent an average 21 weeks unemployed in 2010.
• The Marine Corps wrote $63 million in unemployment checks in 2008 and $129 million in 2010.

Read the USA Today article for more on the numbers, including provisions by the military to curb the unemployment rate increase among outgoing service members and analysis on why jobless rates for the group are on the rise.