Affirmative Employment:

Assessing Progress of EEO Groups in Key Federal Jobs Can Be Improved

GGD-93-65, Mar 8, 1993

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GAO analyzed the representation of women and minorities in key federal jobs, including their hiring, promotion, and voluntary or involuntary departure from those jobs.

GAO found that: (1) the relative number of white women and minority men and women increased between 1984 and 1990 in all grades; (2) the relative numbers of minority women increased by 34 percent, compared to a 22-percent increase among white women and minority men; (3) both white and minority women were hired into pay grades below 11 at lower relative numbers than those at which they were employed; (4) white women and minority men and women were separating in 1990 at relatively higher levels than those at which they were already employed in key jobs; (5) white women in grades 11 and above in 1984 and 1990 were promoted to key jobs at levels that exceeded their prevailing employment levels at those grades; (6) women and minorities are still less well represented in key jobs at the upper grade levels than at grade 10 or below; (7) agencies commonly compare their workforces for the current year with their workforces for the previous year to assess affirmative employment; and (8) by looking at percentage differences in representation, it is difficult to see whether equal employment opportunity groups that constitute a smaller percentage of the workforce are making the same progress as those that constitute a larger percentage of it.