Last month, the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) issued final rules for annual reporting by federal contractors of veterans in their workforces. The new rule, which takes effect August 1, 2015, replaces the current VETS-100 and VETS-100A filing requirements. The current reports require contractors to break down veterans in their workforces by a number of categories, such as disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, etc.

At the request of many contractors, the new rules only require a single reporting of all veterans in the workforce. VETS said that this will allow the agency to get a better idea of total veteran hiring and employment, because many veterans are double-counted under the current rules. The final rule includes a new form VETS-4212 that will replace the current forms beginning in 2015. Contractors with at least ten business locations must file the form electronically. Other contractors may choose electronic or paper filing. The report must be filed between August 1 and September 30 of each calendar year in which a federal contract is in place.