The federal government is the nation's largest employer, with nearly 2.7 million employees across the country and around the world. Over the past decade, there have been subtle changes in the composition of the federal work force, one of the most diverse in the nation. The participation rate of Blacks in federal government jobs has slightly decreased while the rates of women, Latinos and Asians have slightly increased over the past 10 years.  

However, the number of people with targeted disabilities continues to decline and remains below 1 percent of the total work force, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which monitors federal agency compliance with equal-employment-opportunity (EEO) laws. Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the federal government has identified for special emphasis. The targeted disabilities are deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, convulsive disorders, mental retardation, mental illness and distortion of limb and/or spine.

The EEOC was established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964's Title VII, with the mission of eradicating discrimination in the workplace. In the federal sector, the EEOC enforces Title VII, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), which prohibits employment discrimination against individuals 40 years of age and older; the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in compensation for substantially similar work under similar conditions; and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Rehabilitation Act), which prohibits employment  discrimination against federal employees and applicants with disabilities, and requires that reasonable accommodations be provided.

Every year, the EEOC releases an Annual Report on the Federal Work Force, informing the president and the Congress on the state of equal-employment opportunity throughout the federal government. Data in the report is available online at www.eeoc.gov.

The EEOC's annual report provides a revealing snapshot of federal employment, summarizing EEO activities in federal government as well as work-force profiles of 59 agencies.

Among the highlights in 2008:

• Blacks remain above their popular representation in the federal work force, accounting for just more than 18.3 percent, which has remained stagnant for the last decade. This doesn't translate to the senior pay level, however, where Blacks only are 6.7 percent of the work force.

• Women remain below their population representation in the federal work force, accounting for 44.1 percent, while men account for 55.9 percent; the participation rate for women has slowly but steadily increased over the last ten years.

• Latinos remain underrepresented at all levels of the federal work force, accounting for 3.6 percent of the senior pay level and 7.9 percent of the total federal work force. This lacking representation is particularly concerning because Latinos are the fastest-growing population in the United States.

"Hispanic participation is lacking in the major job series at most agencies," the EEOC said in its 2008 report. "Although some agencies have excellent Hispanic participation numbers, upon closer examination … reports reveal that Hispanics are not equally participating throughout the organizations. Instead, Hispanics are clustered within specific job categories, or occupational niches, and are disproportionately hired in some agencies and occupations more than others.''

• Individuals with targeted disabilities remain the most underrepresented group in federal government. The number of employees with targeted disabilities in the federal work force has been steadily declining in the past 10 years, from 27,601 (1.1 percent) in fiscal year 1999 to 24,427 in fiscal year 2008 (less than 1 percent).

Over the years, DiversityInc has chronicled the small number of Latinos and people with disabilities in federal jobs. Click here to read "Why Are Federal Agencies Not Hiring Latinos?" and click here to read "Which Federal Agencies Fail at Diversity? EEOC Tells All."

Last year, DiversityInc conducted its first survey of federal agencies to determine their commitment to diversity in the same four areas as The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity^®: CEO (agency head) Commitment, Human Capital, Corporate and Organizational Communications, and Supplier Diversity. The second survey is available now and is due Feb. 10, 2010. For more information, contact benchmarking@DiversityInc.com.

DiversityInc's first survey of federal agencies revealed that while some agencies have made notable progress in ensuring that their work forces reflect the changing needs and faces of their constituents, very few of them yet excel at diversity management. The results of this survey will be announced at DiversityInc's event in March 2010.

According to the EEOC's annual report, 16,752 complaints alleging employment discrimination were filed against the federal government in 2008—up 2.4 percent from the prior year. EEO complaints were filed against agencies on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability and reprisal. Pre-complaint counseling and programs for alternative dispute resolution (ADR) addressed many employee concerns before they resulted in formal EEO complaints. Of the 38,898 instances of counseling in 2008, more than half did not result in a formal complaint being filed. Agencies paid out more than $50 million to complainants (including appellate decisions).