OPM praises agencies for hiring more veterans

The number of veterans hired by the federal government is on the rise, according to the latest statistics released by the Office of Personnel Management.

During fiscal 2002, the government hired 272,761 new workers, of which 17.4 percent, or 47,510, were veterans, according to a report released by OPM last week. This represents a 19.2 percent increase over the number of veterans hired the previous fiscal year, but the total number of workers hired by the government also increased in 2002.

The percentage of new federal hires who are veterans has, in fact, remained fairly steady over the seven most recent years for which statistics are available, fluctuating in the range of 16 percent to 18 percent, the OPM report showed.

But the fiscal 2002 percentage of 17.4 is still impressive because the number of veterans looking for jobs declined during that time, said John Palguta, vice president for policy and research at the Partnership for Public Service and former director of policy and evaluation at the Merit Systems Protection Board.

OPM's report presents an "impressive" picture and demonstrates that the "federal government continues to be a very proactive employer of veterans," Palguta said. The 1944 Veterans Preference Act instructs federal managers to favor qualified veterans during the hiring process.

The latest hiring statistics also garnered praise from OPM Director Kay Coles James.

"I am proud of the strides federal agencies have made toward the employment of veterans," she said in an introduction to the report. "With our military actively engaged in the fight against terrorism, we must not falter in our commitment to the employment of these dedicated Americans."

The annual report is compiled from information in OPM's Central Personnel Data File, and does not capture hiring practices at the Central Intelligence Agency and several smaller agencies. Fiscal 2002 numbers are the most recent information available, according to agency spokesman J. Porter.

OPM acknowledged that the report does not necessarily "reflect accurately the current state of veterans' employment in the federal government." But the personnel agency has undertaken efforts to ensure that the number of veterans employed by the government continues to rise. For instance, OPM's Veteran Invitational Program, officially launched in August, educates former military service members about the process of applying for a federal job and opportunities available at government agencies.

OPM's fiscal 2003 statistics will be especially interesting because they will lend insight into how, or if, personnel flexibilities in the 2002 Homeland Security Act have influenced veterans hiring, Palguta said. That legislation allows agency managers to abandon the "rule of three," which required them to select hires from the top three job candidates.

Critics of the new personnel rules worried that managers might pay less attention to veterans' preference when selecting from a larger pool of candidates. But Palguta predicts that the new flexibilities will actually result in agencies hiring more veterans.

If the government continues to hire veterans at a steady rate in fiscal 2003, or if hiring of veterans continues to rise, OPM's next annual report will send a powerful message that the government can streamline its hiring process without hurting veterans' chances at finding a federal job, Palguta said.

View OPM's report for more statistics on the hiring of veterans.