OFCCP has once again updated the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) hiring benchmark. Effective March 31, 2023, the new veteran hiring benchmark (the percentage of total hires who are protected veterans that the contractor seeks to hire in the following AAP year) is 5.4%. This is a 0.1% decrease from the 5.5% mark set last year and continues the trend of reduced benchmarks. The database with previous benchmarks can be found here.
As a reminder, contractors required by VEVRAA to develop a written affirmative action program (AAP) must also establish a hiring benchmark for protected veterans every year, or adopt the national benchmark provided by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) each year, as part of their AAP update. Under either approach, contractors must compare the percentage of hires who are protected veterans in each of their written AAPs to the hiring benchmark set for that AAP. Contractors should use the result of this comparison when assessing the effectiveness of their veteran outreach and recruitment efforts.