Post-9/11 vet unemployment sets yet another record in April

The unemployment rate for the youngest generation of veterans hit another new record low in April, dropping to 4.1 percent, government data show.

That figure edges out the previous all-time low for post-9/11 veterans of 4.2 percent, charted in November, and represents a big drop from the previous month's rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The nation as a whole tacked on 160,000 jobs in April, meanwhile, with the unemployment rate unchanged from March's 5 percent.

While that seasonally adjusted rate is the most widely reported and relied on for the country, it is calculated differently from the veteran unemployment rate, which is not seasonally adjusted.

A better comparison is the nonveteran unemployment rate, which is similarly not seasonally adjusted. That rate was 4.5 percent in April, higher than the post-9/11 vet unemployment rate. That is a relative rarity, but it is far from the most noteworthy aspect of the unemployment picture for the newest generation of veterans.
The group has seen an unprecedented run of employment success over the last 12 months. April 2016 marks the seventh time since May 2015 that the monthly unemployment rate was either the lowest or the second-lowest recorded at the time it came out.
The 4.1 percent April rate for post-9/11 veterans is a significant drop from the March rate of 6.3 percent, as well as from the April 2015 rate of 6.9 percent. Such fluctuations are typical for the measure, owing to its smaller sample size. The larger trend is clearly positive, however.

For veterans of all generations, unemployment was 3.9 percent in April, down from 4.5 percent the previous month and 4.7 percent in April 2015.