The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs announced that the annual hiring benchmark under the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act has been lowered from 6.9 percent to 6.7 percent. This percentage represents the national percentage of veterans in the civilian labor force, which has decreased each year since 2014, when the OFCCP began requiring the hiring benchmark.

The new benchmark of 6.7 percent went into effect on March 31. Contractors who completed their affirmative action plans for 2017 before the OFCCP’s announcement of the new benchmark may continue to use the 2016 benchmark.

The VEVRAA prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment against protected veterans and requires contractors take affirmative action to recruit, hire, promote, and retain protected veterans. Since March 2014, covered contractors have been required to develop an annual hiring benchmark for protected veterans or adopt the national benchmark. The benchmark is used to assess the effectiveness of the contractor’s outreach and recruitment efforts toward protected veterans.

Additional information regarding the VEVRAA Benchmark Database can be found here.