More vets hired but not staying

The share of 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 last 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. They're more likely than nonveterans 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 nonveterans. Former service members left the Commerce Department at similar rates, with 68 percent staying two years or more, compared with 82 percent for nonveterans.

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 nonveterans.

The only agencies that kept more veterans than nonveterans 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. Starting in 2009, President Obama pushed agencies to increase hiring of veterans, in response to the bleak employment prospects that many service members faced after returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This is the first time that the administration has measured how well agencies retain veterans. Senior leaders will be rated at the end of the fiscal year on how well they closed the gap between veterans and non-veterans who leave.