How to Complete and File the VETS-4212 Report (Formerly VETS-100A)

The VETS-4212 report is the annual filing federal contractors and subcontractors submit to the U.S. Department of Labor to report their protected veteran workforce data. It replaced the VETS-100A after the 2014 filing cycle, so if you’re looking for the VETS-100A, the VETS-4212 is now the form that meets your obligation. File it through the DOL portal at vets4212.dol.gov between August 1 and September 30 each year.

Who Has to File

The Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act requires federal contractors and subcontractors to take affirmative action in hiring protected veterans and to report their workforce data annually to the Department of Labor.¹ The statute at 38 U.S.C. § 4212 sets a base contract threshold of $100,000, adjusted periodically for inflation under the Federal Acquisition Regulation.² As of 2025, the FAR Council raised the VEVRAA threshold from $150,000 to $200,000.³ Any company holding a single federal contract or subcontract at or above the current threshold must file.

Both prime contractors and subcontractors are covered when an individual contract meets the threshold, and filing covers all of the company’s locations, not only the site performing the federal work.

Several situations sit outside the requirement:

State and local government agencies and their contractors that don’t participate in federal contract work.
Companies with no individual contract meeting the dollar threshold as of January 1 of the filing cycle.
Worksites outside the United States and its territories.
Acquired companies that no longer maintain a separate identity after the transaction.

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What Data to Gather Before You File

The report totals protected veterans as a single aggregate figure, but your underlying data collection still has to identify who counts. Four groups qualify as protected veterans: disabled veterans (those entitled to VA disability compensation or discharged because of a service-connected disability), recently separated veterans (discharged within the past three years), Armed Forces service medal veterans (those who participated in a military operation for which the medal was awarded under Executive Order 12985), and active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans.⁵

An employee can fall into more than one category. On the VETS-4212 you report the total number of protected veterans, so overlap doesn’t inflate the count.

Federal regulations require you to invite applicants to self-identify as protected veterans at two points: before making a job offer (whether they believe they are a protected veteran) and after extending an offer but before the person starts work (which specific category or categories apply).⁶ Both invitations must state that your company is a federal contractor with an affirmative action obligation, that responding is voluntary, that the information is confidential, and that declining will not affect the candidacy. The DOL publishes a sample form that meets these requirements.⁷ Existing employees should also get the chance to self-identify. Those totals are what populate the report.

How to Complete the Report

Company Identification

Each report requires your Employer Identification Number (nine digits), DUNS number (nine digits), and NAICS code (six digits), all specific to the hiring location being reported. You’ll also need a company number, which starts with the letter “T” followed by six digits. Indicate whether you’re filing as a prime contractor, subcontractor, or both, using the codes P, S, or B.⁴

A company with a single location selects “Single Establishment.” A company with multiple locations files one report as “Multiple Establishment-Headquarters” and additional reports for each hiring location, or as state-consolidated reports.

Reporting Period

The report covers a 12-month reporting period. Set it by picking a date between July 1 and August 31 of the current year that coincides with the end of a pay period, then count back 12 months. If your payroll period ends August 15, 2026, for example, your reporting period runs from August 16, 2025 through August 15, 2026. You can instead use December 31 of the prior year as your ending date, which is useful if you file the EEO-1 and want both reports on the same workforce snapshot.⁴

Employee Data by Job Category

The form uses ten job categories, drawn from the EEO-1 classifications most large employers already track:

Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers
First/Mid-Level Officials and Managers
Professionals
Technicians
Sales Workers
Administrative Support Workers
Craft Workers
Operatives
Laborers and Helpers
Service Workers

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For each category, enter four numbers: total protected veteran employees (Column A), total employees including protected veterans (Column B), total protected veteran new hires (Column C), and total new hires including protected veterans (Column D). Breaking new-hire data out by job category is optional, but the totals are required. Enter zeros where you have no employees or new hires in a category. The system treats blank cells as zeros, and blank fields in batch files can cause processing errors.⁴

You’ll also report the maximum and minimum number of employees on your payroll at any point during the 12-month reporting period.

Submitting the Report

File through the DOL’s VETS-4212 portal at vets4212.dol.gov. The annual filing window runs from August 1 through September 30.⁴ You can enter data manually through the web interface or upload a batch file.

Manual Entry or Batch Upload

Manual entry works for a handful of locations. Companies with more than ten hiring locations should use batch upload. Batch files are comma-separated value (CSV) files: plain-text ASCII with each field separated by a comma. Zip codes must be five digits (with leading zeros if needed), EIN and DUNS numbers must be nine digits, NAICS codes must be six digits, and phone numbers must be ten digits with no dashes or spaces.⁸

Common batch errors that will bounce a submission: blank lines at the end of the file, empty cells in the employment data columns (use zeros), spelling out contractor type as “Prime” instead of using the single-letter code, and DUNS or NAICS numbers that are the wrong length.

Confirmation and Records

After submission the portal generates a confirmation message and emails a confirmation number. If the email doesn’t arrive, log back in and check the filing status. Save the confirmation and the submitted data for at least three years, along with the underlying source data and the methodology you used to identify protected veterans, in case a compliance reviewer asks.

The Annual Hiring Benchmark

Alongside the report, VEVRAA requires covered contractors to set an annual hiring benchmark for protected veterans at each establishment. You can adopt the national benchmark published by OFCCP, currently 5.1% effective July 30, 2025, or develop an individualized benchmark using the five factors in 41 CFR § 60-300.45(b)(2).⁹

The benchmark is not a quota, and missing it does not automatically trigger a violation. It is the yardstick OFCCP uses to evaluate whether your affirmative action efforts are producing results.

What Happens If You Don’t File

Federal contracting officers are prohibited from spending or obligating funds to enter into a contract with any contractor that was required to file but did not submit a report for the previous fiscal year.¹⁰ In practice, the company becomes ineligible for new federal contracts until the overdue report is submitted. The bar lifts once you file, but active procurements may not wait.

OFCCP also uses VETS-4212 data in compliance evaluations, and a missing report draws immediate attention.⁴ Under VEVRAA, OFCCP has authority to seek contract cancellation, suspension, or debarment for violations of the act’s requirements.¹¹

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 USC 4212 – Veterans’ Employment Emphasis Under Federal Contracts
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Jurisdiction Thresholds and Inflationary Adjustments
4
U.S. Department of Labor. VETS-4212 Federal Contractor Reporting
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Am I a Protected Veteran?
6
eCFR. 41 CFR 60-300.42 – Invitation to Self-Identify
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U.S. Department of Labor. Sample VEVRAA Self-Identification Form
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U.S. Department of Labor. VETS-4212 Batch Filing Frequently Asked Questions
9
U.S. Department of Labor. VEVRAA Hiring Benchmark
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 1354
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Federal Contractor Reporting