Veterans fare better in Tom Green County than state, national average

Kenneth L. Stewart  |  Angelo State University

Joyously, the Fourth of July celebration returned to the downtown River Stage this year. The comeback of the city’s spectacular Independence Day gala illustrates why the State of Texas named San Angelo a Music Friendly City in 2019. The scheduled feature performance by the Air Force Band of the West also reminds us that the city has been twice recognized as a military-friendly city by the Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command.

Although support and resources to Goodfellow AFB prompted the latter awards, the city’s reputation as a military-friendly community is not lost on veterans. I decided to assess the status of the veteran population for this Fourth of July, precisely because the community readily exclaims support for the military.

Positive Basic Demographics

Basic demographic indicators support the notion that a military-friendly community sentiment applies to local veterans. For instance, more than 8,800 veterans live in San Angelo and Tom Green County, according to the Census Bureau’s most recent estimates for 2019. On a percentage basis, the number suggests the local community is home to more veterans, 10% of the adult population, than Texas (6.5%) or the nation overall (6.9%). In short, San Angelo and Tom Green County attract more than an average share of veterans as a place to live after completion of military service.

Another basic indicator shows that the community positively advances the educational attainment of veterans. The military itself promotes education of its troops, and Angelo State University is a perennially recognized military-friendly higher education institution.

The educational milestones achieved by the local veteran population reflect these advantages. Census data reveals that about 5.2% of veterans age 25 and over had not completed high school, and another 24.1% had gone no further than finishing their high school diploma in 2019. The comparable ratios for the all Tom Green County residents age 25 and over were considerably higher at 12.8% and 30.3%, respectively.

Of course, the relatively smaller percentage of veterans who attained no more than a high school education means that more veterans achieved higher educational milestones. The data indicates that about 44.7% of local veterans completed at least some college or attained an Associate’s degree. Another 26% attained Bachelor’s or post-graduate degrees. The corresponding county-wide proportions were lower at 32.7% and 24.1% in 2019.

Veteran Employment Outcomes

The year 2020 was a difficult time for employers to keep workers on the job, as it was for workers to find and keep steady employment. Still, the most recent data on the situation of veterans during the pandemic indicates that they generally fared better than other workers.

This March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released data showing that the national unemployment rate for veterans more than doubled from 3.1% to 6.5% between 2019 and 2020. But a larger increase occurred among non-veterans from 3.6% in 2019 to 8% in 2020. The year of the pandemic tells us that veteran status increases job security in U.S. labor markets.

Realizing that the challenges veterans face in transitioning to civilian labor are of ongoing concern to policymakers, the Census Bureau developed and released a dataset on Veteran Employment Outcomes in December 2020. The VEO dataset focused on the 2018 earnings of more than 730,000 U.S. Army veterans who enlisted and were discharged after completing their initial term of military service between 2000 and 2015.

Combining the national VEO data with additional 2018 data on the earnings of full-time workers in Tom Green County reveals some earnings outcomes that potentially favor veterans in the local labor market. First, the combined data show that full-time working veterans across the nation are more equally employed across industries than are full-time workers in our civilian workforce. About 48.1% of veterans, compared to only 38.3% of local civilian workers, are employed in a group of nine industries with higher median wages than the $39,720 overall median pay level for all full-time workers in the 2018 local labor market. The nine industries are focused in agriculture, oil and gas production, wholesale trade, transportation, utilities, and a range of professional services.

Opposite the nine high paying industries are eight groups focused in construction, manufacturing, retail sales, renting and leasing, administrative, educational, health, social support, lodging and food services. The combined data indicates that these industries employ a staggering 60.9% of local full-time workers, but only about 47.3% of veterans across the nation.

In addition, the combined data reveals that earnings of veterans are more equal across industries compared to the earnings gap that exists between local civilian workers. Nationwide, veterans in the nine high-pay industries earned a median $51,517, about 46% more than the $35,324 median pay of veterans in the eight lower-pay industries. By comparison, the median for local civilian workers in the high-pay industries ($56,002) was about 69% more than the $33,220 median paycheck for local workers in the low-pay industries.

It is important to reiterate that these comparisons are based on a national sample of U.S. Army enlisted veterans who completed an initial term of service after the year 2000. The comparisons apply to the local labor market only to the extent that employment outcomes of Tom Green County veterans, regardless of service branch or period of service, align with the patterns revealed in the VEO dataset. Perhaps more detailed future data will enable precise determination of the degree of alignment between employment outcomes at the national and local levels.

Veterans, Poverty and Disability

The fact that 10.7% of local veterans were living in poverty in 2019 is a surprising data point given the above review of educational opportunities and labor market outcomes. The veteran poverty rate was roughly equal to a 10.9% level among all Tom Green County adults, and well above the 6.7% rate for veterans across Texas and the nation.  

About 2,356 of Tom Green County’s 8,849 veterans lived with disabilities during 2019. This converts to a 26.6% rate of disability and compares to a 19% disability rate among the county’s more than 84,500 adults that year.

Disability increases risk of falling into poverty in most communities. Specifically, the local connection is stronger in the general adult population than among veterans. During 2019, a 22% poverty rate among people age 18 and over with disabilities was more than double the 10.9% poverty rate in the overall adult population. In contrast, the 15.5% rate among veterans with disabilities was slightly less than 5 points higher than the 10.7% of all local veterans living in poverty.

Frustrating qualification processes are notorious barriers for people with disabilities seeking assistance. Nevertheless, different disability systems are important social determinants of the disparate risk of poverty between veterans and other adults. The difference begins with how disability is defined by the Social Security Administration versus the Veteran’s Administration.

VA benefits are for service-connected disabilities acquired, or at least aggravated, by military service. Compensation is based on a graduated scale measuring the severity of a condition on a 100 point scale. Veterans multiple disabilities may receive more benefits. Although the VA can revoke benefits to veterans involved in unlawful conduct, payments may last for the a lifetime. While civilians with no military service are precluded from VA disability assistance, veterans who qualify may participate in the SSA disability system covering the civilian population in general.

The SSA system qualifies individuals based on their inability to participate in the workforce. Social Security Disability Insurance, applicants must establish a record of past work and show that they cannot continue working or adjust to alternative work. Applicants must also document that their disability has lasted, or is expected to last, for a year ahead, or to result in death. SSA’s means-tested Supplemental Security Income system provides assistance to low-income adults with no established work record, but SSI applicants must show that disability prevents participation in any work that generates a minimum level of income.

Data from the Census Bureau indicates that about 98% of the 2,356 Tom Green County veterans with disabilities qualified for service-connected conditions during 2019, and more than half (55%) had VA disability scores of 50 or higher of the 100 point scale. At the same time, SSA data indicated that only 21.7% of the county’s 16,102 disabled adults received SSDI or SSI benefits.

What Celebrating Veterans Means

This is a time to be proud of our military-friendly community and express fervent gratitude for the sacrifices of troops, veterans and military families. As we celebrate, however, a recognition that the nation asks for these sacrifices in order to ensure that the American people flourish in security and freedom should not be lost. Consistent with that mission, we must seek a people-friendly community that helps every American of every class, creed and color to flourish, just as our military friendliness helps veterans to flourish.  

Contact Kenneth L. Stewart at kenneth.stewart@angelo.edu.

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