Data on Hispanic Representation in the Federal Workforce
Gao ID: GAO-07-493R May 18, 2007In August 2006, we reported to Congress on the results of our review, which Congress requested, of factors affecting Hispanic representation in the federal workforce and efforts being taken by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and other agencies related to Hispanic representation. We reported that EEOC and OPM require agencies to analyze their workforces to help ensure equal employment opportunity and that EEOC requires agencies to analyze subsets of their workforce to determine whether barriers to such opportunities may exist. As indicated in that report, and as discussed with Congress, this report contains additional data on Hispanic representation in various subsets of the federal workforce with some comparisons to Hispanic representation in the Civilian Labor Force (CLF). The data in this report provide a foundation for further analyses by agency officials and policymakers as they consider a broad spectrum of issues related to Hispanic representation in the federal workforce. These data include analyses by agency, selected occupation, occupational category, grade, and among new hires. For purposes of these analyses, the federal workforce governmentwide includes civilian employees of all cabinet-level departments, independent agencies, commissions, councils, and boards in the executive branch except the intelligence agencies, the Postal Service, and the Foreign Service (as of 2006).
This report provides data on: (1) Hispanic representation for each of the 24 Chief Financial Officer Act agencies, using the CPDF for each of the years 1990-2006. The Central Personnel Data File (CPDF) is a database maintained by OPM that contains individual records for most federal employees and personnel actions. It is the primary governmentwide source for information on federal employees; (2) Hispanic representation in the CLF and governmentwide by EEOC's occupational categories. EEOC uses nine occupational categories for the federal workforce--officials and managers, professionals, technicians, sales, office and clerical, craft workers, operatives, laborers, and service workers. EEOC also requires private sector employers to report data using these nine categories; (3) Hispanic representation governmentwide by OPM's occupational categories. OPM, which is responsible for classifying federal occupations, uses six occupational categories; one covering blue-collar occupations, which includes occupations comprising the trades, crafts, and manual labor, and five covering white-collar occupations--professional, administrative, technical, clerical, and other white collar; (4) Hispanic representation in federal occupations and in similar occupations in the CLF. We selected the occupations which in September 2004 had 10,000 or more federal employees--47 occupations in total; (5) Hispanic representation by pay plan/grade; and (6) Hispanic representation governmentwide and, for each agency, among new hires, separately for permanent and nonpermanent hires, using the CPDF for 1990 and each of the years 2000-2006.
GAO-07-493R, Data on Hispanic Representation in the Federal Workforce
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May 18, 2007:
The Honorable Henry A. Waxman:
Chairman:
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:
House of Representatives:
The Honorable Danny K. Davis:
Chairman:
Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Post Office,and the District of
Columbia:
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform: House of Representatives:
The Honorable Charles A. Gonzalez:
House of Representatives:
The Honorable Grace Flores Napolitano:
House of Representatives:
Subject: Data on Hispanic Representation in the Federal Workforce:
In August 2006, we reported to you on the results of our review, done
at your request, of factors affecting Hispanic representation in the
federal workforce and efforts being taken by the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Office of Personnel Management (OPM),
and other agencies related to Hispanic representation.[Footnote 1] We
reported that EEOC and OPM require agencies to analyze their workforces
to help ensure equal employment opportunity and that EEOC requires
agencies to analyze subsets of their workforce to determine whether
barriers to such opportunities may exist.[Footnote 2] As indicated in
that report, and as discussed with your offices, this report contains
additional data on Hispanic representation in various subsets of the
federal workforce with some comparisons to Hispanic representation in
the Civilian Labor Force (CLF).[Footnote 3] (See enclosure 1.) The data
in this report provide a foundation for further analyses by agency
officials and policymakers as they consider a broad spectrum of issues
related to Hispanic representation in the federal workforce. These data
include analyses by agency, selected occupation, occupational category,
grade, and among new hires. For purposes of these analyses, the federal
workforce governmentwide includes civilian employees of all cabinet-
level departments, independent agencies, commissions, councils, and
boards in the executive branch except the intelligence agencies, the
Postal Service, and the Foreign Service (as of 2006).[Footnote 4]
The data in this report are descriptive and our analyses did not
include any statistical tests controlling for citizenship, education,
or other factors that can affect an individual's placement in the
federal workforce or the CLF. These data are not intended to and do not
show either the existence or absence of discrimination against
Hispanics or any other group by a federal agency. Additionally, these
data should be considered in the context of changes to the size,
structure, and occupational composition and hiring needs of individual
agencies and the federal workforce as a whole. For example, in 2003 the
Department of Homeland Security was formed from portions of other
cabinet-level departments, including the Departments of Justice,
Transportation, and Treasury, and all of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, an independent agency. We did not report data on
Hispanic representation where the total number of employees in the
particular subset of the federal workforce was less than 20 because a
single employee within a subset of less than 20 employees can change
representation levels by 5 percent or more. We also indicated where the
total number of employees in a particular subset ranged from 20 to 50.
For our analyses of Hispanic representation among on-board federal
employees, we included both permanent and nonpermanent employees
because the CLF, to which the federal workforce is often compared,
includes both permanent and nonpermanent employees. However, because
about half of all new federal hires are nonpermanent employees compared
to about a tenth of all current federal employees, for our analyses of
Hispanic representation among new hires, we provided data on Hispanic
representation separately for permanent and nonpermanent hires.
Permanent employees include those who have career or career-conditional
appointments, while nonpermanent employees include those with a
temporary or limited term appointment or other appointment that does
not make them eligible to become a career employee. In our August 2006
report, we reported on the reliability of the same datasets used for
these analyses--the Central Personnel Data File (CPDF) and the Census
2000 Special EEO File. Because we use these datasets in this report for
similar purposes as they were used in our August 2006 report, we
consider these datasets sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this
report.
* In table 1, we provide data on Hispanic representation for each of
the 24 Chief Financial Officer Act agencies,[Footnote 5] using the CPDF
for each of the years 1990-2006. The CPDF is a database maintained by
OPM that contains individual records for most federal employees and
personnel actions. It is the primary governmentwide source for
information on federal employees.
* In table 2, we provide data on Hispanic representation in the CLF and
governmentwide by EEOC's occupational categories.[Footnote 6] EEOC uses
nine occupational categories for the federal workforce--officials and
managers, professionals, technicians, sales, office and clerical, craft
workers, operatives, laborers, and service workers. EEOC also requires
private sector employers to report data using these nine categories. We
determined Hispanic representation in the federal workforce by EEOC's
occupational categories using the CPDF for each of the years 2000-2006.
We did not analyze Hispanic representation using EEOC's categories for
the federal workforce or CLF for 1990 because changes in how federal
occupations were categorized in 1990 versus 2000 did not allow us to
adequately conduct these analyses. For the analysis of Hispanic
representation in the CLF by EEOC's occupational categories, we used
the Census 2000 Special EEO File. The Census 2000 Special EEO File is a
tabulation based on decennial Census data, which permits analyses of
representation in the CLF by occupation, race, ethnicity, and gender.
The Census Bureau prepares these files based on specifications set by
EEOC, OPM, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Labor.
* In table 3, we provide data on Hispanic representation governmentwide
by OPM's occupational categories. OPM, which is responsible for
classifying federal occupations, uses six occupational categories; one
covering blue-collar occupations, which includes occupations comprising
the trades, crafts, and manual labor, and five covering white-collar
occupations--professional, administrative, technical, clerical, and
other white collar.[Footnote 7] We determined Hispanic representation
in the federal workforce governmentwide by OPM's occupational
categories using the CPDF for 1990 and each of the years 2000-2006. We
did not analyze CLF data by OPM's occupational categories because some
federal occupations are included in multiple categories depending upon
the employee's grade level and the Census 2000 Special EEO File does
not have comparable grade-level data to allow us to adequately conduct
an analysis.
* In table 4, we provide data on Hispanic representation in federal
occupations and in similar occupations in the CLF. We selected the
occupations which in September 2004 had 10,000 or more federal
employees--47 occupations in total. For Hispanic representation in
these occupations governmentwide, we used the CPDF for each of the
years 2000-2006. For Hispanic representation in these occupations in
the CLF, we analyzed the Census 2000 Special EEO File. To match the
federal occupations with similar occupations in the CLF, we used a
crosswalk provided to us by EEOC.
* In tables 5 through 30, we provide data on Hispanic representation by
pay plan/ grade. Table 5 contains governmentwide data and tables 6
through 30 contain data for each agency, using the CPDF for each of the
years 1990-2006 in groupings of Blue Collar (wage grade), General
Schedule grades 1 through 4, 5 through 8, and 9 through 12; separately
for grades 13, 14, and 15; and separately for those in the Senior
Executive Service, Senior Level/Senior Technical positions, and under
the Executive Schedule.
* In tables 31 through 34, we provide data on Hispanic representation
governmentwide and in table 35, for each agency, among new hires,
separately for permanent and nonpermanent hires, using the CPDF for
1990 and each of the years 2000-2006. Governmentwide, we provide data
on new hires overall, by pay plan/grade, and EEOC's and OPM's
occupational categories. In the definition of permanent new hires, we
included reinstatements--those who had career status when they were
separated from the federal workforce and received new career
appointments. We did not include the Federal Bureau of Investigation in
the new hire data because it does not submit data to the CPDF on hires
and other personnel actions. Additionally, beginning in January 2006,
OPM required agencies to ask new hires to identify whether or not they
are Hispanic--their ethnicity--separate from or regardless of their
race rather than, as previously required, in response to a single
question where Hispanic could be selected from a list of racial and
ethnic groups, which could affect the reported percentage of Hispanic
new hires.
We provided the Chair of EEOC, the Director of OPM, the Attorney
General, and the Secretary of Commerce with a draft of this report for
their review and comment. EEOC, OPM, and the Department of Commerce
provided technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate. In
response to comments by the Department of Justice, we have added
explanatory notes to tables 2 and 4. Justice's comments are reprinted
in enclosure II.
We will send copies of this report to the Chair of EEOC, the Director
of OPM, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Commerce, the
Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and other interested
parties. Copies will be made available to others upon request. This
report will also be available at no charge on GAO's Web site at
http://www.gao.gov.
If you have questions about this report, please contact me at (202) 512-
9490 or stalcupg@gao.gov. In addition to the contact named above, Belva
M. Martin, Assistant Director; Karin K. Fangman; Anthony P. Lofaro;
Rebecca Shea; Tamara F. Stenzel; and Gregory H. Wilmoth made major
contributions to this report.
Signed by:
George H. Stalcup:
Director, Strategic Issues:
Enclosures:
[End of section]
Enclosure I: Hispanic Representation in Subsets of the Federal
Workforce Data Tables:
[See PDF for Data Tables]
[End of tables 1-35]
[End of section]
Enclosure II: Comments from the Department of Justice:
U.S. Department of Justice:
April 13, 2007:
Washington, D.C. RC 20530:
Ms. Belva Martin:
Assistant Director:
Strategic Issues:
United States Government Accountability Office:
Washington, D.C. 20548:
Dear Ms. Martin:
This letter responds to a letter, dated March 29, 2007, from George H.
Stalcup, Director of Strategic Issues, United States Government
Accountability Office ("GAO"), to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales
inviting comment by this Department to the GAO's proposed report
entitled Data on Hispanic Representation in the Federal Workforce (GAO-
07-439R)("Draft Report"). We thank you for providing us the opportunity
to comment on your Draft Report.
The GAO's Draft Report references (at 1) the GAO's report of last
August that, inter alia, addressed various factors (citizenship, level
of education, etc.) that affect the representation of Hispanics in the
federal workforce. See GAO, The Federal Workforce: Additional Insights
Could Enhance Agency Efforts Related to Hispanic Representation, GAO-
06-832 (Washington, D.C.: August 17, 2006) (the "August 2006 Report").
The Draft Report then states (at 2) that:
this report contains additional data [to that presented in the August
2006 Report] on the Hispanic representation in various subsets of the
federal workforce with some comparisons to Hispanic representation in
the Civilian Labor Force (CLF). [footnote omitted] The data in this
report provide a foundation for further analyses by agency officials
and policymakers as they consider a broad spectrum of issues related to
Hispanic representation in the federal workforce.
We are concerned with the GAO's presentation - without any qualifiers -
of comparisons between Hispanic representation in the CLF and Hispanic
representation in the federal workforce. See Draft Report, Tables 2 and
4. In our view, comparisons of this type that do not include the effect
of various factors (citizenship, level of education, etc.) are at a
minimum misleading, and could lead to misinterpretation and
misapplication by the federal agencies and others.
Let us illustrate the serious problem with presenting such comparisons
without any qualifiers. In its August 2006 Report, the GAO found that
"Hispanics 18 [years of age] and older were 30 percent less likely than
non-Hispanics to be employed (i.e., represented) in the federal
workforce, relative to the nonfederal workforce." August 2006 Report,
at 7. However, the GAO correctly observed that, with few exceptions,
U.S. citizenship is required for federal employment; and, indeed, "99.7
percent of federal executive branch employees were U.S. citizens or
nationals in 2005." Id. When the GAO took into account the effect of
citizenship, it found that Hispanic citizens 18 years of age and older
were only "5 percent less likely than non-Hispanics to be employed in
the federal workforce compared to their representation in the
nonfederal workforce. Id. Further, the GAO correctly observed that
"[t]he federal workforce contains a greater percentage of occupations
that require higher levels of education than the CLF." Id., at 8. When
the GAO took into account the effects of both citizenship and level of
education, it found that "Hispanic citizens were 1.16 times or 16
percent more likely than similarly educated non-Hispanic citizens to be
in the federal workforce than the nonfederal workforce." Id. Lastly,
when the GAO took into account all of the factors in its statistical
model that affected Hispanic representation in the federal workforce
(citizenship, level of education, gender, veteran's status, race,
English proficiency, age, disability status, school attendance,
employment status and geography), it found that "among citizens,
Hispanics were 24 percent or 1.24 times more likely than non-Hispanics
to be employed in the federal workforce than in the nonfederal
workforce." Id., at 7.
In light of the above, we feel strongly that the GAO should insert a
caveat as to the limited use that can be made of the comparisons
presented in Tables 2 and 4 of the Draft Report and incorporate by
reference those findings of its August 2006 Report that arc discussed
above.
Thank you again for the opportunity to review and comment on the draft
report. If you have any questions, please contact Richard Theis, DOJ
Audit Liaison, who can be reached on 202-514-0469.
Sincerely,
Signed by:
Lee J. Lofthus:
Assistant Attorney General for Administration:
[End of section]
(450529)
FOOTNOTES
[1] See GAO, The Federal Workforce: Additional Insights Could Enhance
Agency Efforts Related to Hispanic Representation, GAO-06-832
(Washington, D.C.: Aug. 17, 2006).
[2] EEOC defines barriers as agency policies, principles, or practices
that limit or tend to limit employment opportunities for members of a
particular gender, race, or ethnic background, or based on an
individual's disability status.
[3] Hispanics are defined as persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban,
Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin. The CLF
is defined as those 16 and older (including federal workers) who are
employed or looking for work and not in the military or
institutionalized. With a few exceptions, 18 years is the minimum age
for federal employment.
[4] For on-board employees, the Foreign Service is not included for all
2006 data, and for new hires, the Foreign Service is not included as of
March 2006.
[5] In 2006, the Chief Financial Officer Act agencies employed 98
percent of federal employees.
[6] EEOC also calls its categories, "job" or "employment" categories.
For purposes of this report, we refer to them as "occupational"
categories.
[7] For the white-collar occupations, OPM considers the subject matter
of work, the level of difficulty or responsibility involved, and the
educational requirements of each occupation in determining the
occupational category.
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