Defense Force Management:

Occupation Distribution and Composition

NSIAD-92-85, Mar 23, 1992

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Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the: (1) distribution of minorities and women among major occupational groups in the military services; and (2) composition of major occupational groups by race or Hispanic origin and by gender during fiscal year (FY) 1990.

GAO found that: (1) close to one-third of the officers in each racial or ethnic population was assigned to the tactical operations occupational group; (2) 48 percent of male officers were in tactical operations, while 44 percent of female officers were assigned in health care; (3) minorities in officer occupational groups comprised less than 20 percent of any single group during FY 1990; (4) the top three career fields for both black and white enlisted populations and for enlisted men overall were the functional support and administrative occupations, the infantry, gun crew, and seamanship specialist occupations, and the electrical and mechanical equipment repair fields; and (5) the single largest proportion of enlisted women served in the functional support and administrative occupations.