Social impact

LinkedIn's First Annual Veteran Insights Report: An Inside Look at U.S. Veterans in the Workplace

LinkedIn’s Veterans Program is proud to announce the launch of its First Annual Veteran Insights Report.

In 2012, I was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps and became part of a veteran community that was facing atrocious unemployment rates. Like many of my brothers and sisters, I knew there had to be a way to bridge the gap, and so I began my search for a way to become part of the solution. During that search, I met and worked with some inspiring people and organizations, like the Institute for Veterans and Military Families, Veterans Job Mission, Hire Heroes USA, and the Travis Manion Foundation, and witnessed an amazing transformation. Our community rose up and together developed programs to eliminate the barriers our fellow veterans faced in connecting with opportunity.

Fast forward through years of hard work from members and supporters of the veteran community, and we saw post-9/11 veteran unemployment cut in half to 4.1% -- almost a full percentage lower than the overall U.S. unemployment rate. Veterans are now “in-demand” talent in the workforce. With more than 2.1 million veteran and military members on LinkedIn, the LinkedIn Veterans Program team decided to leverage LinkedIn’s Economic Graph to glean insights into the professional identities of this growing veteran community.

We wanted to know, “What is making veteran professionals so successful?”

With 2.1 million veteran and military LinkedIn members, our team analyzed their professional experience, skills, education, and behaviors, as well as veteran employer data. Here’s what we found:

  • Information Technology is the number one industry where veterans are employed

  • Networking is the number one method veterans find career opportunities

  • More than 186,000 veteran professionals are executives, vice presidents, founders, owners or partners in the workforce

Our data shows a veteran community that is aligning its skills with high growth industries. It shows a community that builds and leverages professional networks to advance their career. And, most importantly, it shows a community that utilizes its leadership training in the military to become leaders in the civilian workforce.

How can the country use this data?

This report is not only meant to celebrate the successes of the veteran community, but also to provide insight into the modern veteran professional for organizations that empower this very community. We hope these insights can be a resource for the federal government, veteran non-profits, and veteran program managers as they further develop programs designed to continue the reduction in veteran unemployment for those that have sacrificed so much for this country.

You can explore the Veteran Insight Report here  and learn more about this thriving community of professionals. And for all veterans, visit veterans.linkedin.com to receive your One Year Free LinkedIn Premium Account, includings access to Lynda.com, an online learning platform with 6,000 business, technical & creative courses.