FLORIDA: The federal jobs going to veterans is at its highest level in five years, new statistics show, with former service members making up almost half of full-time hires in the past fiscal year. In government, 1 worker in 3 is now a veteran, proof that the White House’s six-year push to give those who served in the military a leg up for federal jobs is working.The bad news is that once veterans get into government, they don’t stay long.
They’re more likely than non-veterans to leave their jobs within two years, the Office of Personnel Management reports, even if they have transferred from other federal agencies.The Small Business Administration had the most trouble keeping veterans in fiscal 2014, with just 62 percent staying two years or more, compared with 88 percent of non-veterans.Former service members left the Commerce Department at similar rates, with 68 percent staying two years or more, compared with 82 percent for non-veterans.
Even the Department of Veterans Affairs, traditionally a draw for former troops, lost a little more than a quarter of its veterans within two years, compared with 20 percent of its non-veterans. The only agencies that kept more veterans than non-veterans were the Defense and State departments, the report released last month shows.The growing presence in government of male and female veterans is the most visible federal effort to reward military service since the draft ended in the 1970s.
