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From an Office of Personnel Management News Release

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2013 – The federal government’s executive branch hired the highest percentage of military veterans in more than 20 years during fiscal year 2012, surpassing the previous high set in fiscal 2011, Office of Personnel Management officials announced today.

The numbers were contained in the report of Employment of Veterans in the Federal Executive Branch for Fiscal Year 2012, which also was released today.

The government hired about 195,000 new employees in fiscal 2012, compared to about 230,000 new employees in fiscal 2011 — a reduction of more than 34,000 total hires. Some 56,000 of the fiscal 2012 hires, 28.9 percent, were veterans, officials said. This is a 4.9-percentage-point increase over the fiscal 2009 baseline of 24.0 percent, and about 0.6 percentage points higher than the 28.3 percent realized in fiscal 2011, they added.

In fiscal 2012, veterans represented 29.7 percent of the workforce. In fiscal 2009, about 25.8 percent of the workforce was composed of veterans.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order establishing the Veterans Employment Initiative in November 2009 to improve employment opportunities for veterans. Through the leadership of the Council on Veterans Employment, this initiative continues to produce positive results by recruiting and employing veterans, OPM officials said.