The short answer would be: little to none.

After WW II, active duty military dropped from over 12 million to under 1.5
million in 1950.  (To Truman's great regret in 1950, as we now know.)  Some
got jobs.  Some were unemployed.  Some were disabled.  And some went to
school on the GI Bill before entering the work force.

But one big difference is that Iraq and Afghanistan were fought without a
crash increase in numbers.  In fact, through Bush I to Clinton to Bush II,
the size of the military was dropping.  Under Bush II it flattened out and
stayed in the region of 1.4 million, but did not jump up the way it did for
Viet Nam.  So the end of the fighting will not lead to any great mustering
out.  And I haven't seen any strong move by Obama to slash the overall size
of the military, although he might consider it next year as he tries to cut
spending going into his reelection try.


~> Just thinking about now that the Iraq thing is winding down and we're
'bringing
~> the boys home,' what kind of impact will that have on unemployement?
~> 
~> I found this bit of history on the web:
~> 
~> Here's a look at the U.S. unemployment rate for selected years from 1920 to
~> 2008.
~> Year  Rate
~> 1920  5.2 %
~> 1928  4.2
~> 1930  8.7
~> 1932  23.6
~> 1934  21.7
~> 1936  16.9
~> 1938  19.0
~> 1940  14.6
~> 1942  4.7%
~> 1944  1.2
~> 1946  3.9
~> 1948  3.8
~> 1950  5.3
~> 1952  3.0
~> 1954  5.5
~> 1956  4.1
~> 1958  6.8%
~> 1960  5.5
~> 1962  5.5
~> 1964  5.2
~> 1966  3.8
~> 1968  3.6
~> 1970  4.9
~> 1972  5.6
~> 1974  5.6%
~> 1976  7.7
~> 19781  6.1
~> 1980  7.1
~> 1982  9.7
~> 1984  7.5
~> 19861  7.0
~> 1987  6.2
~> 1988  5.5
~> 1989  5.3
~> 19901  5.6%
~> 1991  6.8
~> 1992  7.5
~> 1993  6.9
~> 19941  6.1
~> 1995  5.6
~> 1996  5.4
~> 19971  4.9
~> 19981  4.5
~> 19991  4.2
~> 20001  4.0
~> 2001  4.7
~> 2002  5.8
~> 20031  6.0%
~> 20041  5.5
~> 20051  5.1
~> 2006  4.6
~> 2007  4.6
~> 2008  5.8

 
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