(1) Definition of Underrepresentation:

          "Underrepresentation, as defined in 5 CFR, Section 720.202, means a situation in which the number of women or members of a minority group within a category of civil service employment constitutes a lower percentage of the total number of employees within the employment category than the percentage that women or the minority group constitutes within the civilian labor force of the United States."

-- FEORP FY 2006 at page 46

Discussion and Illustration:

          According to the feds' statistics, 12.8% of the Relevant Civilian Labor Force (RCLF) is comprised of Hispanics.  This number allegedly represents the proportion of Hispanics in the general population who are qualified for the federal jobs under analysis.

Chart from page 9 of the FY 2006 OPM report. The red notations were added by our editors.

The feds' employment data show that only 7.6% of federal jobs (Federal Workforce, or FW) for which the Hispanics are qualified are actually filled by Hispanics.           Under the law this means Hispanics are "underrepresented" in the Federal Workforce by -5.2% (12.8% RCLF - 7.6% FW = -5.2%).  This, in turn, triggers an "affirmative action plan" by the feds to increase their employment of Hispanics by at least 5.2% over current federal levels.  (As the preponderance of the data show, there is actually no upper limit on federal hiring of preferred minorities.)

          Very reasonable, right?   Wrong!  This is only a reasonable and just policy if you buy into the notion that every race, skin color, and gender is entitled to proportional representation in all employment opportunities.

          But where does it say that in the U.S. Constitution or in the Bill of Rights?  One must reasonably ask are we a country that promises equal opportunity based upon effort and ability regardless of skin color, or are we a country that promises equal results based on skin color?

          Furthermore, there are some insurmountable problems with the way in which the feds compute the underrepresentation of of "Hispanics".

          First, the Civilian data used by OPM to compute "underrepresentation" includes non-citizens and unemployed individuals, whereas the Federal Workforce (FW) data, by their own definition, includes only employed individuals who are predominantly U.S. citizens.  This chart illustrates the non-comparability of the two sets of data used by OPM:

          The inclusion of non-citizen Hispanics, unemployed Hispanics, and undocumented (illegal) immigrants greatly inflates the RCLF which in turn greatly overstates the alleged "underrepresentation" of Hispanics in the fed workforce.

          The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report last year in which they strongly urged the feds to take citizenship into account when computing the representation of Hispanics.   According to GAO, both OPM and the U.S. EEOC rejected this suggestion.  This is evident in the current FEORP FY2006 data which Adversity.Net has analyzed.

          Furthermore, the GAO report showed that the likelihood of Hispanics being employed by the federal government is actually higher than for non-Hispanics when the population data are adjusted for citizenship and education!

(2) Definition of Civilian Labor Force (CLF):

          "The Civilian Labor Force (CLF) percentages for each minority group presented in this report are derived from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Annual Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS data cover non-institutionalized individuals 16 years of age or older, employed or unemployed, U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens."

-- FEORP FY 2006 at page 46

(3) Definition of Relevant Civilian Labor Force (RCLF):

          "The Relevant Civilian Labor Force (RCLF) is the Civilian Labor Force (CLF) data that are directly comparable (or relevant) to the occupational population being considered in the FW. For example, we would compare Black engineers employed in the Federal workforce with Black engineers reported in the RCLF. In this report, the RCLF varies from agency to agency because of the differing occupational mix within each agency."

-- FEORP FY 2006 at page 46

(4) Adversity.Net's Computations How We Calculated Over and Under Hiring of Minorities Using OPM's Data

          The percentages in Columns A and B of all of our tables have been computed by OPM and we have duplicated these numbers exactly from OPM's official FY 2006 report.  Columns C and D were computed by Adversity.Net based upon the OPM data in Cols A and B of our tables.

Column A:  OPM data shows 8.6% as the proportion of blacks available in the civilian population for the specific jobs and agency in question (EEOC in this example).  This constitutes a de facto "affirmative action target" (quota) for EEOC.

Column B:  OPM data shows that 43.1% of EEOC's workforce are blacks.

Column C:  This is an intermediate number used in Adversity.Net's calculations and is simply the difference between (A) the "racial target"; and (B) the actual employment of that race by the agency.  In the case of blacks at the EEOC the difference between (A) and (B) is +34.5%

Computation of Column C:
          Col B - Col A = Col C (difference between target "A" and actual employment "B")

Column D:  Using a simple computation, Adversity.Net used OPM's data to show that the percentage of blacks in GSA's workforce is 401.2% higher than the proportion of blacks in the civilian population.  The simple computation is as follows:

Computation of Column D:
( Col C / Col A ) X 100 = Col D (rate of over or under hiring, expressed as a % of the racial 'target' or 'goal' stated in Column A)

In this example, Col. C = 34.5 and Col. A = 8.6.  Using these numbers:

(34.5 / 8.6) X 100 = 401.2% more blacks work at EEOC than their proportion in the relevant civilian labor force.

          Adversity.Net defines this as "over hiring" of the designated minority group.  OPM, however, does not define "over hiring" or even "overrepresentation".

2007 OPM Annual Report to Congress (FY 2006 Hiring Data) EXAMPLE: Tabulation of Minority Hiring at the U.S. EEOC

Note 2 -- Our computation:  Col (B) - Col (A) = Col (C)

Note 3 -- Our computation:   [Col (C) / Col (A)] X 100 = Col (D)

(5) Adversity.Net Commentary

          The Code of Federal Regulations (5 CFR 720.202) cited by OPM defines underrepresentation in such a way that white males and other, non-preferred groups cannot, by definition, be "underrepresented" in federal employment and presumably therefore cannot claim racial discrimination by their federal employers when they are denied a job or promotion due to their non-preferred status.

          Significantly, in the approximately 50 pages of fine print comprising the OPM report there is not one, single graphic or table illustrating the the proportion of white males employed by the feds.

          Equally pointedly, OPM also does not define a concept of overrepresentation whereby hiring too many members of preferred racial groups would be discouraged if not illegal.  This is quite evident in OPM's FY2006 report:  The GPO employs 503% more blacks than their proportion in the available civilian population.  HUD employs 363% more blacks than their quota, while the Dept. of Education employs 329% more blacks than their quota.

          In fact, the FY2006 OPM report -- just as the previous 6 years of data we have analyzed -- continue to clearly illustrate that overrepresentation of selected, preferred races (overhiring) by the federal government is the rule and not the exception.  Further, the practice is obviously strongly encouraged especially as regards the hiring of blacks.

Tim Fay, Editor
Adversity.Net

More FY 2006 Charts and Excerpts:

place
holder