Employment Service Needs To Emphasize Equal Opportunity in Job Referrals

Gao ID: HRD-80-95 September 17, 1980

The Employment Service finds jobs for people and people for jobs. It is operated jointly by the Department of Labor and the states through local employment offices.

The Employment Service offices which GAO visited generally referred minorities and women to lower paying jobs traditionally held by minorities and women in proportions greater than their representation among applicants. These were low or semiskilled positions, such as maids, porters, domestic workers, retail sales clerks, and clerical workers. Whites and males were referred to better paying jobs in proportions greater than their representation among applicants. Minority and female applicants were often unskilled or semiskilled, and could not qualify for better paying jobs. The local offices' practices for processing applicants followed traditional employment practices and, therefore, reinforced them. Local offices filled most job orders with new applicants as they registered, and referred few applicants from among those with applications on file. Federal and state equal opportunity compliance efforts were inadequate. The Department of Labor was not responsive to Department of Justice recommendations for improving its enforcement activities. The Department of Labor's regional administrators did not emphasize equal opportunity enforcement in providing employment services. The Department of Labor did not require states to use its computerized equal opportunity compliance tool, which presents applicant data in a format designed for equal opportunity analysis. The training applicants need to obtain or improve their skills may be met through Comprehensive Employment and Training Act programs.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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