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Minority and Women Under-Represented in USDA's Workforce
While a fell ' USDA agencies have made g reat strides ill divers!fyillg their l I 'orkforce at al1 lel 'els, most COl 1 tillue to lag f([ r behind ill /JI()I'iding the same le l 'els qf dil'ersi(r ill their professiol1([I, lI1id- , ([Ild senior- Iel 'el positiolls.
Accord i ng to the U . S . Depart ment of Labor. between 1 990 and 2000. women. m i norities. and i m m i grant� w i l l account for 80 percent of the U n i ted States l abor force growt h . The "Framework for Change : Work Force Divers i ty and Del i very of Programs:' a U S DA report released in 1 990. fou nd t hat U S DA had a need to remedy under-representat ion in its workforce by prov iding equal empl oyment and promotion opport u n i t ies for all employees. When this statement was made, U S DA ranked 5 2 nd out of 56 Federal agencies i n the employment of m i nori t ies. women. and i ndividuals w i th d i sab i l i t ies. I n 1 990. U SDA estab l i shed a goal to build a d iverse workforce that approx i mates the N at i on's labor force at entry. m id. sen i or. and executive level s and to ens ure that the workforce wou ld de l i ver programs in an efficient. e ffect i ve. and fai r manner by 2000. The 1 995 GAO report cited earl ier noted that w h i l e women a n d m i nori ties at U S DA had m ade progress i n t h e i r relative leve l s of representation s i nce 1 984. compared w i t h white men. they were sti l l reprc sented i n lower re lat ive numbers in the agencies' key job categories. I n gener a l , the re lative numbers of white women and m i nori ties in the SES ranks of U S DA has i ncreased s i nce 1 984. H owever. white men conti nued to dom i nate the h igher ranks of US DA's top pos i t ions in 1 996. These statist ics. however. do not tell the whole story. An analysis of U S DA's work force by Professional , Adm i n i strative. Technical. Clerica l , Other. and B l u e Collar ( PATCOB ) selies shows that men continue to dom i nate the profes sional ran ks in U S DA. accounting for over 77 percent of the 28. 1 0 I profes sional pos i tions. White men i n pal1icular account for 1 8.678 or 66 percent of all professional pos i t ions in U S DA . Women continue to hold the majority of the 7 .057 c lerical pos i t i ons i n U S DA . f i l l i ng 92 percent of those pos i ti on�. W h i l e a few U S DA agencies have madc g reat strides i n divers i fy i n g their workforce at a l l levels. most conti nue to lag far behind i n provid i ng the samc leve l s of di versity in their professional, m i li-, and seni or-I evcl positions. ( Sce
Members of the Civil R ights Action Team at a liste n i n g sessi o n .
33 CIVIL RIGHTS AT THE U S DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE