Vets continue slow climb in federal employment

The number of veterans employed by the federal government continued a steady creep upward last year, the Office of Personnel Management announced just before Veterans' Day.

More than a third of new federal hires in fiscal 2005 were veterans. But the percentage rose only slightly, to 33.7 percent from 33.6 percent in fiscal 2004. OPM released the statistics in its annual report to Congress on the state of veterans' employment.

The 48,257 newly hired veterans brought the total number of full-time veterans in the federal workforce from 422,204 to 425,379. The overall number of full-time federal employees grew from 1,562,690 to 1,569,650 during that same period.

OPM Director Linda Springer restated her commitment to veterans' preference -- the legal advantage that veterans hold in hiring and firing in the federal government -- in a letter to Congress accompanying the report.

"As these highly trained and professional veterans transition to civilian life seeking new employment, especially in the federal government, they provide an excellent source of talent," she said.

But the numbers in OPM's report reflect the number of veterans in the workforce, not the number with veterans' preference. To qualify, applicants need 24 months in service, permanent positions and a campaign badge, depending on when and where they served. In June, OPM issued regulations to ease the qualifications Iraq War veterans need for veterans' preference.

Richard Weidman, director of government relations for Vietnam Veterans of America, said the numbers mask agencies' illegal discarding of veterans' preference rules.

"Veterans are not an affirmative action group -- where a measurement of percentages necessarily means anything as to whether or not veterans' preference is enforced," Weidman said. If the government issued a report that said "28 percent of people have freedom of speech and last year it was only 12 percent, that's meaningless…if one person is denied what is guaranteed."

The numbers vary significantly by agency, too. The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments employ the bulk of veterans.

"The other agencies are not doing their part at all," Weidman said.

Weidman said his group expects to push for new legislation and an executive order this year to strengthen veteran's preference rules.

OPM's numbers were compiled from its Central Personnel Data File.