Capital Data: New York’s veteran unemployment problem

More veterans in New York State are unemployed than non-veterans, according to data released by the state Department of Labor.
Veteran unemployment is 7.6 percent compared to 6.5 percent for non-veterans.
The labor department released data on veterans in its monthly newsletter, which says that there are 921,400 veterans in New York State, based on the Current Population Survey. This is 6.1 percent of the civilian non-instintutional population over 18 years old.
Of the 921,400 veterans, more than 108,000 (or almost 12 percent) have a disability related to their service.

Nationally, the numbers are reversed: Theunemployment rate in November for veterans was 4.5 percent, compared to 5.5 percent of non-veterans.
Nationally, the unemployment rate is highest for recent veterans who served in Gulf War-era II (post September 11, 2001). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 5.7 percent of Gulf War II veterans are unemployed nationally compared to 2.3 percent for Gulf War I veterans, 5.1 percent for World War II, Korea, and Vietnam veterans and 5.0 percent for other service periods.

Veteran homelessness is also a major problem and both the city and federal government have programs seeking to house homeless veterans. According to the the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website, there were 49,933 homeless veterans on a single night last January.
In New York City, 1,300 of the city’s 207,000 veterans are homeless, according to city Department of Homeless Services spokesman Christopher Miller. But Miller notes that the city has placed over 6,500 homeless veterans into housing since 2007 and that veteran homelessness has declined 64 percent since 2011.
The labor department newsletter also shows which time periods New York State’s veterans served. Most veterans—270,300—served during the Vietnam era. And there are 111,700 Korean War-era veterans in New York State, 102,300 Gulf War-era I veterans, 96,500 Gulf War-era II, and 77,200 World War II-era veterans.

There are also 262,100 veterans in New York who served during peacetime, either between the Vietnam War and the first Gulf War, between the Korean War and the Vietnam War, or between World War II and the Korean War.
The greatest concentration of veterans, as a proportion of the local population, is upstate. Jefferson County (home of Fort Drum) has more than 13,000 veterans, which is over 11 percent of its population. Hamilton County has 645 veterans, which is over 13 percent of its population.
Although a small percent of the area population, there are more than 53,000 veterans in Brooklyn and 58,000 in Queens, as well as nearly 65,000 veterans in Erie County and more than 79,000 veterans in Suffolk County.