Companies that do business with the U.S. government are largely failing to meet federal targets for hiring military veterans, a new analysis finds.
Nudged by successive U.S. administrations, employers rushed to create hiring and retention programs for former military personnel after the Sept. Much of the government effort has been focused on federal contractors, which are required to show they are taking steps to hire a certain share of veterans each year. “Hiring is well below what companies are claiming they’re aspiring to and what the actual government is setting as a benchmark. Most big American companies plus thousands of small ones sell goods and services, such as toilet paper, jet fighters and website design, to the U.S. government. The government uses its clout to mandate policies on everything from worker pay to workforce diversity practices. Every year, the federal government also sets a target—not a quota—for veteran hiring by contractors, who must design plans to show how they intend to recruit ex-service members. Rand analyzed corporate disclosures, foundation tax records and federal contractor filings. Companies are doing little to track and report progress on hiring and retaining veterans , the report found. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Meanwhile, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the government agency tasked with overseeing federal contractors, has been shrunk significantly in the last two years and the White House has proposed eliminating it entirely.
11 attacks and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among other contractors, veteran hiring is higher, at 4.1%, though still below the target. It found that grants to veteran-related programs by corporate foundations fell from roughly 1% of annual giving in 2014 to around 0.3% in 2023. Overall, veteran unemployment has fallen from near double-digit levels in 2011 to below 4% today.
Both of those are red flags,” said George Zuo, an economist at Rand and author of the report. That is creating a disconnect between public statements of support for men and women who served in the military and the concrete programs and outcomes for veterans once they transition to the private sector, Zuo said. But employers face challenges recruiting ex-service members, said Eric Eversole, president of Hiring Our Heroes, a veteran-focused program of the U.S. It isn’t conducting audits or reviews of veteran hiring, a change from the first Trump administration, said David Cohen, co-founder of the Institute for Workplace Equality, a trade association for federal contractors.
