For this job announcement there probably were other applicants who by law must be considered before your application (e.g., certain veterans or displaced federal employees). The last time you applied for the position there may have been no other applicants who were required to be considered by law before other applicants may be considered. Veterans’ Preference is a federal law that essentially requires agencies to hire qualified veterans before qualified non-veterans. Therefore, we cannot consider non-veterans for employment, until those who are entitled to Veterans’ Preference are either hired or withdraw from consideration. You may have also not scored high enough on the assessment if category rating was used to evaluate applicants. Only applicants who are placed in the highest category can be considered for employment.