Although programs focusing on hiring of veterans date back decades, OPM pointed to the significant increase since a 2009 Obama administration order. At that point, veterans made up 25.8 percent of the total workforce.
“This initiative has helped thousands of veterans find employment within the federal government and I want to take this opportunity to thank these employees for continuing to serve their country and the American people, even after they have hung up their military uniforms,” OPM acting director Beth Cobert said in the report.
The 2015 report is the first to include data on retention of veterans. Seventy-nine percent of agencies in Council on Veterans Employment—a body the order created to oversee the veterans hiring initiative—were assessed as effective or above in retention. That is based on continued presence in an agency two years after a hire or transfer in.
Agencies with the highest retention rates, all 80-90 percent, were NRC, EPA, Transportation and Energy, while SBA, NSF, Labor, HHS and Agriculture were around 67 percent.
However, in almost all cases—NASA being the sole exception among the two dozen Cabinet departments and major independent agencies listed—the retention rate for veterans was nonetheless lower than the rate for non-veterans.
