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Title: New York's 9/11-Era Veterans: A Quantitative Study by Sex, Race, and Ethnicity 2007-2017

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2021

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Abstract: Those who choose to serve in the armed forces often do so out of a powerful sense of civic duty. But for generations, military service has also been packaged by recruiters, veterans, and popular culture as a clear path to upward social mobility. This report explores the extent to which that aphorism has remained true for the New York metropolitan area’s 9/11 era veterans over the last decade.1 This study examines key socioeconomic and demographic trends among non-active duty veterans in the New York metropolitan area who served in the U.S. armed forces during the post-9/11 era. To achieve a richer understanding of the conditions former servicemen and servicewomen face as they transition into civilian life, this report looks at topics such as sex, race/ethnicity, age, employment status, income, poverty rates, and educational attainment between 2007 and 2017. 2 Overall, the news is good. 9/11 era veterans in the New York metropolitan area performed well above their non-veteran counterparts in most socio-economic categories. The data indicate that between 2007 and 2017 employment, income, and educational attainment rates were consistently higher, and poverty rates consistently lower, than those of the metro area’s general population. These trends held relatively firm during the financial crisis of 2008 and as the veteran population continued to grow into the 2010s. In short, there is considerable evidence within this report to affirm that serving in the armed forces continues to have a direct correlation with greater socio-economic success. This correlation is particularly stark among Latinos and non-Hispanic blacks, where the variances between their nonveteran counterparts are prevalent in income, employment, poverty rates, and educational attainment. Perhaps most striking among these findings is the rapid growth of the 9/11 era veteran population. Over the ten-year period studied here, the number of former servicemen and servicewomen in the New York metro area almost doubled while the general population grew at a much smaller rate. Along race/ethnic lines, the composition of the veteran population became significantly more Latino over the ten-year period -- so much so that Latinos eventually eclipsed non-Hispanic blacks as the second largest race/ethnic group after non-Hispanic whites.

Url: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1095&context=clacls_pubs

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Authors: Cappello, Lawrence

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Race and Ethnicity

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