On Friday, March 31, 2023, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) updated the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) hiring benchmark to 5.4 percent, slightly down from 5.5 percent in 2022.

As part of their annual affirmative action plan (AAP), federal contractors are required to establish an annual hiring benchmark. This hiring benchmark indicates the percentage of total protected veterans that the contractor seeks to hire during the following AAP year.

Contractors have two options for establishing a hiring benchmark: 1) develop an individualized hiring benchmark, or 2) utilize the national percentage of veterans in the civilian labor force—the latter being a more typical choice. For contractors who choose to calculate their own benchmark using the five-factor method, information on state-level availability on veterans in the civilian labor force has also been updated on the VEVRAA Hiring Benchmark Database.

The 5.4 percent benchmark went into effect Friday, March 31, 2023, and is part of a downward trend in the VEVRAA benchmark percentages over the past decade (see Figure 1). The data used to calculate the annual national percentage of veterans as a benchmark can be found on the website for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

DCI will continue to monitor and share any further developments.