October surge in hiring lowers veterans’ unemployment to 2.7% – Military Times

October surge in hiring lowers veterans’ unemployment to 2.7%  Military Times

The jobless rate for veterans fell to a stunning 2.7% in October as employers added 165,000 hires. The jobless rate for veterans fell to a stunning 2.7% in October as employers added 165,000 hires, far exceeding market estimates of 60,000-65,000 non-farm jobs, according to the monthly jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The overall jobless rate ticked down from 4.2% in September to 4.1%, BLS said, while the jobless rate for all veterans fell from 3.5% in September to 2.7%. The unemployment rate for the nation’s post-9/11 generation of veterans also came down from 4.1% in September to 3.4% in October, the BLS report said. The data for the report was collected in mid-October, well before the historic midterm losses suffered by the Republican Party, and the massive stock market selloff Thursday that saw the Dow drop by more than 1,800 points and the Nasdaq plunge 5.5% in what amounted to a gut check for the artificial intelligence and data center boom.

The selloff erased $2.3 trillion in market value. But markets appeared to stabilize in early trading Friday. The S&P 500 was up 72 points, or nearly 1%, erasing losses after it suffered its worst day since April 2025 on Thursday, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 437 points, or 1.8%. The BLS report showed employment increased