Downsizing and Race

As older white men have opted to leave the civil service through early retirement and buyouts, minorities and women have maintained their numbers in the federal workforce despite government downsizing, according to Office of Personnel Management data obtained by Govexec.com.

According to OPM, downsizing has spared minorities and women because white men in senior positions have been most likely to accept buyouts and early retirement when agencies offer them. Widespread reductions-in-force have not occurred, sparing many women and minorities who would generally be the first to be laid off under first-hired, first-fired rules.

At the same time, minorities' and women's numbers have not increased significantly, and Hispanics and women continue to be underrepresented in the federal workforce when compared to the private sector. However, minorities as a whole and African Americans and Asian Americans in particular are better represented in the federal government than they are in the overall U.S. workforce.

A draft version of OPM's annual report to Congress on equal opportunity in the federal government includes the following findings for 1996:

• Minorities accounted for 32.4 percent of all promotions, while they were 28.7 percent of the federal workforce.
• Roughly one in every three new hires in the government was a minority.
• Just as in 1995, women were 42.9 percent of the federal workforce. They were 46.3 percent of the entire U.S. workforce.
• African Americans constituted 17 percent of the federal workforce, 14.9 percent of new hires, and 17.1 percent of job losses (from terminations, retirements or layoffs). African Americans are 10.8 percent of the U.S. workforce. Those numbers are virtually unchanged from 1995.
• Hispanics represent 6 percent of the federal workforce, compared with 10.5 percent in the private sector.

Earlier this month, leaders of groups representing black employees in government called on President Clinton to host a White House summit to look in part at federal employment practices they said discriminate against African Americans and other minorities. Blacks are terminated at three times the rate of whites in the federal government, the groups contend.