Federal contractors and subcontractors should begin preparing and filing their annual Veteran Employment Report, or VETS-4212 Report, now as the final deadline is September 30th.
All federal contractors and subcontracts holding a covered government contract in the amount of $200,000 (updated from $150,000) or more, regardless of the number of employees, are required to file a VETS 4212 report. The contract or subcontract may be with any department or agency of the United States for the procurement of personal property or non-personal services. Services include, but are not limited to, utility, construction, transportation, research, insurance, and fund depository, regardless of whether the government is the purchaser or seller.
Contractors can choose to use either the end of any pay period between July 1 and August 31, 2026, or December 31st of the previous year (2025), as their snapshot date. The "reporting period" is the 12 months preceding the selected payroll period ending date.
The report includes the total number of employees and the number of employees who are protected veterans for each of 10 occupational categories. It also includes the number of new hires in the previous 12 months, and the number of new hires who are protected veterans. Protected veteran status is based on the information that contractors receive when inviting employees (post-offer) to self-identify as a protected veteran as part of their protected veteran affirmative action plan obligations.
For purposes of the report, “Protected Veterans” are veterans who are protected under the nondiscrimination and affirmative action provisions of the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA). Specifically, this includes veterans classified as an active-duty wartime or campaign badge veteran (“other protected veterans”), disabled veterans, Armed Forces service medal veterans, or recently separated veterans.
If a contractor is doing business in one location, a single VETS-4212 report would be filed. Contractors doing business at more than one location, in addition to filing a report covering the principal or headquarters office, must also file a separate VETS-4212 report for each hiring location with 50 or more employees and/or state consolidated reports that cover hiring locations with fewer than 50 employees within each state.
The Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) collects the VETS-4212 reports. Contractors can submit the required filings online, via email or postal mail. The preferred method for submission is electronic filing through the VETS web-based filing system. The reporting system for the VETS-4212 opened on August 1st and employers have until September 30, 2026, to complete the filing. More information is available here.
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