With Veteran's Day right around the corner, now is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the most livable places in the country for those who served. Wallet Hub, the online financial resource for consumers and small businesses, recently conducted a study of some of the best cities for military veterans. They used 18 different metrics to determine which cities were most accommodating to those searching for a home for their life after service.
Irvine, California topped Wallet Hub's selection. Scottsdale, Arizona; Raleigh, North Carolina; Orlando, Florida and Gilbert, Arizona rounded out the top five. Cities in California and Texas made up the majority of the other top contenders.
The two primary categories which determined each city's rank were Economic Wellness – measured by factors such as the percentage of jobs which required military-related skills, veteran unemployment compared with that of the general population, job and income growth, as well as housing affordability – and Environment, Education & Health, which included assessments of veteran population size, the number of nearby VA-friendly facilities accepting veterans life insurance and the crime rate.
There are more than 21 million veterans currently residing in the U.S. as of October 2015, and of those, about 422,000 are unemployed. The rate of inter-generational veteran unemployment dropped to an all-time low of 4.2 percent in August, the Military Times reported, and although the rate crept up to 4.3 percent in September, that figure was still the second-lowest ever recorded. In September 2014, 6.2 percent of post-9/11 veterans were unemployed. Today the rate is 5 percent, about on par with the national average. Veterans were hit hard by the recession – 15.2 percent were unemployed in January 2011 – but they, along with the country, have since fought their way back.