MINORITIES AND WOMEN MAKE EMPLOYMENT GAINS
IN FISCAL YEAR 1993

Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Office of Personnel Management's Director James King announced employment gains for minorities and women in the Fiscal Year 1993 Federal Equal Opportunity Recruitment Program (FEORP). FEORP is designed to eliminate under-representation of minorities and women in the federal service.

In OPM's FY'93 FEORP report to Congress, Director King noted the federal work force has a higher representation of minorities than the civilian labor force (CLF) and continues to increase at a greater rate than the CLF. The notable exception to the overall increase is the employment of Hispanics. The report highlights the establishment of the Hispanic Federal Employment Advisory Group designed to increase the employment of qualified Hispanics.

Minority employment as a whole shows very positive long-term trends. In FY 1993, minorities constituted 27.7 percent of the federal civilian work force compared to 23.1 percent in the CLF. Actual numbers of minority employees in white-collar occupations are up 32.6 percent, from 304,449 in 1983 to 403,810 in 1993. Although employment of minorities in blue-collar occupations is down, overall minority employment is up 19.4 percent, from 413,666 in 1983 to 493,644 in 1993.

Long-term occupational trends show women moving out of clerical and blue-collar occupations into careers which lead to higher grades. The trends also show women advancing to higher grade levels in these occupation groups.

Since 1983, women have almost doubled representation in the professional occupations from 7.4 percent to 14.1 percent. The number of women in the executive ranks of professional occupations has grown from 189 to 501, and in the grades GS 13-15 positions, numbers of women have increased over 300 percent, from 9,121 to 28,454.

There have been similar increases in the administrative occupations. The number of executives has increased from 236 to 656. Numbers in high grade positions have increased from 12,721 to 39,645.

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Web page created 2 December 1997