OFCCP updates annual hiring benchmark for protected veterans.

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has posted the new hiring benchmark for protected veterans, which is 5.7 percent effective March 31, 2020.

The Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act requires federal contractors to set an annual hiring benchmark for protected veterans. The main method for establishing that benchmark is to use the national percentage of veterans in the civilian labor force. This figure is updated each year and is now 5.7 percent. In determining whether the hiring benchmark is met, contractors must compare the percentage of hires in each establishment to this hiring benchmark.

(Contractors also have the option of setting their own hiring benchmarks based on the OFCCP's five-factor approach.)

The national percentage of veterans in the civilian labor force has decreased each year since the OFCCP instituted the hiring benchmark in 2014, when the figure was 7.2 percent.