Quick Hits

• OFCCP announced that the national annual veteran hiring benchmark is 5.2 percent, beginning March 31, 2024, down from the benchmark of 5.4 percent, which was in place from March 31, 2023, to March 30, 2024.
• OFCCP also offers federal contractors additional information and examples for the national annual veteran hiring benchmark and individualized hiring benchmark to assist with outreach and recruitment obligations.

Although the 2024 hiring benchmark is only a small decrease from 2023 (5.4 percent), it continues the benchmark’s downward trend that has taken place each year since the benchmark was established in 2014.

VEVRAA requires contractors with written affirmative action programs (AAPs) to either develop their own individualized hiring benchmark using the five-factor method or adopt OFCCP’s national percentage of veterans in the civilian labor force. This benchmark is intended to be a tool used in assessing the effectiveness of outreach and recruitment efforts toward protected veterans, which is required to be completed annually as part of the AAP process.

OFCCP also has published examples for both the national annual veteran hiring benchmark and five-factor method, offering additional details about applying the benchmark to the data collection of applicants and hires, as well as providing sample language for evaluating outreach and recruitment efforts. A new twenty-minute course has also been added to the OFCCP Contractor Compliance Institute, titled, “The VEVRAA Hiring Benchmark.”