USDANEWS VOLUME 56 NO. 5 - MAY 1997

Our Work Force Looks Like This, Statistically

by Ron Hall, Office of Communications

So just what is USDA's current work force profile, and how does it compare with the not-too-distant past?

Secretary Dan Glickman's report on civil rights--"Civil Rights at the United States Department of Agriculture--A Report by the Civil Rights Action Team"--provides an answer to the first part of that question.

Specifically, in a graphic on page 34 titled "USDA Work Force Compared to Civilian Labor Force in 1996," the report portrays--by percentage--a comparison between USDA's permanent work force (all grades) and the civilian labor force in 10 racial, ethnic group, and gender categories as of Sept. 30, 1996.

The source for the USDA statistics in the report was the Equal Employment Opportunity Monitoring and Analysis System (EEOMAS) data base.

Accordingly, using those percentages as well as the actual numerical counts, as analyzed by members of the Civil Rights Action Team, USDA's work force of 84,669 permanent full-time and permanent part-time employees consisted of 41.22% women (34,902) and 58.78% men (49,767).

In addition, according to Crystal Tolar, an equal employment opportunity specialist with the Food and Consumer Service and a resource person for the Civil Rights Action Team who helped to compile this statistical data, this 1996 USDA work force profile included 18.88% of employees identified as members of minority groups (15,999). This, in turn, included 9.57% Blacks (8,104), 4.78% Hispanics (4,052), 2.06% Asian-Pacific Americans (1,750), and 2.47% American Indians (2,093).

Tolar noted--and, as reflected in percentage statistics in the USDA report--that, by comparison, the U.S. civilian labor force statistics, based on 1990 census data, which is the most recent census data available, consisted of 45.7% women and 54.3% men.

The U.S. civilian labor force also consisted of 21.8% minorities, which included 10.3% Blacks, 8.1% Hispanics, 2.8% Asian-Pacific Americans, and .6% American Indians.

Both the USDA percentages and the civilian labor force percentages reflected above are provided in a bit more detail, so some differ slightly with those published in the USDA report.

"Our goal," said Lloyd Wright, director of USDA's Office of Civil Rights, "is to make our USDA work force reflect the civilian labor force, and we're working hard on that goal."

One Type Of Comparison
The statistics above offer one type of comparison--and the answer to the first half of the question posed earlier. But how does the USDA work force profile depicted in the report compare to the not-too-distant past?

Here's an answer. The May 1991 issue of the USDA News carried a story reflecting earlier USDA work force profiles. The earliest statistics in that story were based on data current as of Sept. 30, 1987 and analyzed by specialists in USDA's [then] Office of Advocacy & Enterprise. Those statistics reflected a 1987 USDA work force of 91,179 permanent full-time and permanent part-time employees--over 6,500 more employees than in the 1996 figure. In 1987 that consisted of 35.0% women (31,887) and 65.0% men (59,292).

That 1987 USDA work force profile also included 14.6% of employees identified as members of minority groups (13,320). That, in turn, included 8.4% Blacks (7,682), 3.3% Hispanics (2,984), 1.3% Asian-Pacific Americans (1,150), and 1.6% American Indians (1,504).

Jeremy Wu, deputy director of the Office of Civil Rights, noted that the Department wants to ensure that its work force profile statistics are reliable, accurate, timely, and available.

"Employees are often interested in--and have a lot of questions about--data like this," he affirmed. "So, instead of having to wait for reports to be researched, written, printed, and issued, there should be a way that employees could instantly access the most current information possible--perhaps by making it available on USDA's home page."

Wu explained that USDA's National Finance Center in New Orleans collects the generic work force profile data from individual agencies. NFC then provides that data to the Office of Civil Rights, and OCR specialists analyze it and use it to help Departmental officials make policy decisions, as appropriate.

"But sometimes," he acknowledged, "there are conflicting data, and/or some 'apples & oranges' comparisons in data--which can lead to some doubt about the value of the work force profile statistics."

"If we don't have accurate, credible, and reliable data," Wu said, "this may lead us into making wrong policy in the civil rights arena."

"So let me say that, here in OCR, we'll be putting more emphasis on managing the statistics that we rely on to reflect the Department's work force profile." ¤

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