Numbers Reveal Diminishing Latino Employment
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Numbers Reveal Diminishing Latino Employment At Various Federal Agencies
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released its Annual Report on the Federal Workforce, revealing a further deterioration of consistently disappointing levels of Latino employment at a number of federal agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). As an organization that works closely with the FCC and other federal agencies, the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) is disheartened by the retrogressive statistics revealed by the EEOC.
The report shows that, despite comprising more than 16 percent of the general population, Latinos only make up 7.9 percent of the federal workforce. Trends uncovered in individual agencies tell an even gloomier story. A comparative analysis of the 60 agencies for which EEO data was provided for both fiscal years 2009 and 2010 shows that, although 85 percent of the agencies increased their permanent workforce, more than half (34) experienced a decrease in their percentage of permanent Latino employees. While 26 agencies increased the percentage of Latinos in their permanent workforce, the increases were almost inconsequential with 21 of those agencies experiencing an increase of a quarter of one percent or less. Further, at 55 of the 60 agencies, Latinos made up less than 10 percent of the permanent workforce. Only one agency, the Department of Homeland Security, employed Latinos at a rate at or greater than their proportion of the general population (20.27 percent).
NHMC has been calling for more Latino employment at the FCC for many years now. Unfortunately, according to the EEOC’s report, the FCC experienced a drop in Latino employment with Latinos making up only 3.21 percent of the agency’s permanent workforce in 2010 – down from 3.27 percent in 2009. Notably, Latino employment in well-paying and decision-making positions remains exceptionally low.
“Although it was difficult to imagine that the state of Latino employment at the FCC could get any worse, regrettably, it has. At NHMC we find it hard to understand how an agency that is mandated to promote diversity in the fields of media and telecommunications is, itself, so lacking in diversity. And indeed we must look no further than the Commission’s inadequate attention to diversity issues in the broadcast ownership proceeding to see evidence that the FCC is in dire need of immediate improvement in this area. We know that there are many champions within the FCC that believe strongly in diversity and inclusion, and we call on those individuals to place ‘increase Latino employment’ on their 2012 priority list,” said Jessica J. González, NHMC’s Vice President of Policy & Legal Affairs, and a member of the FCC’s Advisory Committee for Diversity in the Digital Age.
