A pathway to ending the longest federal government shutdown in history is within sight, but veterans, who make up 25% of the federal workforce, have disproportionately been impacted by furloughs and requirements to work without pay.
Some 713,000 veterans worked for the federal government in September 2024. The largest share held jobs at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Army, Air Force, Navy, Defense and Homeland Security, according to a 2025 analysis by the Pew Research Center.
Those numbers do not include the nearly 1.3 million active duty-service members.
For comparison, just 5% of American jobs were held by veterans in September of last year, the study found.
Government agencies across the country, from local to state to federal, offer hiring benefits to qualified veterans. In Tennessee, which employs some 4,000 veterans in state government jobs, the Tennessee Excellence Accountability and Management Act gives veterans preference in hiring.