The Vietnam-era cohort: employment and earnings

Monthly Labor Review, June, 1992 by Sharon R. Cohany

A comparison of labor force activity of Vietnam-era veterans and their nonveteran peers shows few differences; earnings were similar overall, but analysis by selected characteristics reveals a different picture

It is widely accepted that the war in Vietnam influenced the lives and careers of millions, perhaps none more so than those who served in the military during that period. The effect of military service on the economic wellbeing of the 8 million veterans of the period, and especially of the nearly 4 million who actually served in the war theater, continues to be the focus of study and public policy 15 years after the war's end. This article compares the labor force activity and earnings of Vietnam-era veterans and their nonveteran contemporaries as of the fall of 1989.

The study is based on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a household survey conducted monthly for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the Bureau of the Census. Since 1985, BLS has had a congressional mandate to collect detailed information on the employment status of veterans on a biennial basis, particularly of those veterans who served in the Vietnam war theater and those with disabilities. The analysis in this article is based on a survey that was conducted as a supplement to the September 1989 CPS. Similar surveys were conducted in April 1985 and November 1987.2

General characteristics

As of September 1989, there were 8.1 million veterans of the Vietnam era, which extends from August 1964 to May 1975.3 The composition of this population is considerably different from that of the population as a whole. Nearly all of the veterans were men, of whom almost 90 percent were 35 to 54 years of age.4 The analysis in this article focuses on men in this age group, of whom few are in school or retired and whose labor force participation is very high. (Limited information about female veterans, as well as male veterans from other periods of service, is provided later in the article.)

About 10 percent of both the veterans and nonveterans ages 35 to 54 were black. Hispanics accounted for 3 percent of veterans and 9 percent of nonveterans in that age group. (For additional information on minorities, see page 10.)

Education. Substantial differences were noted in educational attainment between veterans and nonveterans? Only 7 percent of the veterans were high school dropouts, compared with 20 percent of the nonveterans. At the other end of the educational spectrum, while about half of both groups had artended college, veterans were more likely to have left school before earning a bachelor' s degree. About 26 percent of veterans had earned college degrees, compared with 31 percent of nonveterans. (See table 1 .)

The high proportion of Vietnam-era veterans with 1 to 3 years of college (28 percent, versus 17 percent for nonveterans) reflects the popularity of 2-year courses of study offered by community colleges, which burgconed in the 1970's, in part to accommodate servicemen and servicewomen returning to civilian life. For veterans, the expenses associated with attending these and other schools were met, at least in part, by special entitlement programs, most notably the GI Bill.6 The September 1989 survey confirmed that about half of the veterans from the Vietnam era took advantage of the GI Bill.

In sum, veterans were more heavily concentrated in the middle-level educational attainment categories, compared with nonveterans, and were less likely to be at either extreme--high school dropouts or college graduates.

Service characteristics

In the biennial survey of veterans, information is collected on several characteristics unique to veterans, such as the location of theft military service, theft exposure to combat, whether they have a service-connected disability and, if so, to what degree, and their use of educational benefits. While all of these will be discussed to some extent, probably the most essential to an analysis of labor force behavior is the location of service--that is, whether it was inside or outside of the war theater. (The Vietnam war theater is defined as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and the waters and airspace in and around those countries.) It can be assumed that veterans' experiences while in the military were significantly different depending on whether they served in the war zone or whether they did not, and much of this analysis will distinguish between these two groups.

Approximately equal numbers of the male Vietnam-era veterans served inside of the war zone and outside of it. There were small but noteworthy demographic differences between the two groups. For instance, blacks made up a relatively larger proportion of those who served in the war theater, comprising 11 percent of these veterans, compared with 8 percent of the nontheater group. Another important difference was in the proportion that finished college: 23 percent of the men who served in the war zone had college degrees, versus 29 percent of the non-theater veterans.