Report Finds Young Veterans More Successful Than Their Civilian Peers

By Debbie Gregory.

There has been a lot of discussion about why veterans are great employees, why the companies who hire veterans are more successful, and why they also make great entrepreneurs. Now a new study released by The Graduate Center at the City University of New York Young has found the young veterans are faring better in life than their civilian counterparts.

The study found that post-Sept. 11 era veterans are better educated, better paid and better off than many of their civilian peers.

“The data indicate that between 2005 and 2015 employment, income, and educational attainment rates were consistently higher, and poverty rates consistently lower, than general nationwide rates” for these veterans.

Despite a national recession during that period, Iraq and Afghanistan war-era veterans showed a near-constant employment rate of about 78 percent, significantly above the 70 percent of the total civilian population.

The median household income for post-Sept. 11 veterans was nearly $74,000 a year in 2005, and the non-veteran average was approximately $67,000. In 2015 the difference was even more pronounced, with the veteran average reaching $80,000, while the non-veterans rate only rose to $68,000.

Some 12 percent of young adults in the U.S. failed to graduate from high school, but only 3 percent of veterans failed to graduate. And when it comes to earning a college degree, 47 percent of young veterans earned a college degree compared to 37 percent of their civilian peers.

“Often, service in the armed forces can be viewed as a ‘dead end’ path reserved for those with fewer options,” the report stated. “But as this report suggests, it can also be packaged as a statistically proven path to higher income, educational attainment, and quality of life.”

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