Favoring the job applications of military veterans has little effect on workforce quality in the U.S. federal government

For over a century, the U.S. federal government has biased its hiring procedures to increase the employment of military veterans. In a recent study, Tim Johnson examines the effect of these hiring procedures on the quality of the U.S. federal workforce. Contrary to both conventional wisdom and past research indicating that preferential hiring degrades workforce quality, he finds that veterans who benefit from preferential hiring reach quality benchmarks at rates comparable to other employees working in the same job circumstances.