Census's EEO special tabulations of workforce, newly updated with 2014-2018 survey data

Todd Graham over 3 years ago

For those who are interested in such things—

Census Bureau has dropped onto its website the update of EEO special tabulations of workforce. This is the data collection that the federal government (US EEOC, US DOJ, etc.) considers to be the “official” benchmark for Affirmative Action and EEO uses. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/data/eeo_tabulation/EEO_2014_2018/

It's a big collection of stuff. So the rest of this email or short “explainer” is advice…

So you’re interested in EEO special tabulations of workforce! Before you wade into this – and maybe it’s new to you – I recommend you make 3 decisions up front, about what you really need.

First decision: geographic scope.

The options are state-level totals, metro statistical areas, individual counties -- or any group of counties that you want to assemble after you download the data.

Second decision: count jobs or count workforce?

One set of tables counts jobs at workplaces ("W" tables). Another set counts working residents in the state or region or county where they reside ("R" tables).

(The difference between the two concepts is the commuters who work in your region but live elsewhere.)

Third decision: occupations typology.

You'll see in the documentation https://www2.census.gov/EEO_2014_2018/EEO_FTP_Site_Documentation/ACS2018_EEO_FTP_TECHDOC_Version_1.0.pdf … the documentation discusses that occupations have been summarized:

by Census detailed occupations (236 categories in all; this is table set #1R and 1W),
by occupation summary groups (14 summary categories; this is table set #3R and 3W),
by EEO-1 job families (9 summary categories; this is table set #4R and 4W),
also by EEO State &Local Government job families (8 summary categories; this is table set #6R and 6W).

You probably don't need (or want to deal with) more than one or two occupation typologies. I recommend: pick only what you need. There’s an excellent comparison of the occupation typologies here https://www.eeoc.gov/statistics/occupational-data-and-occupational-groups-census-2000-special-eeo-file

(For example, if you’re in a state or local government agency, and your HR office has to complete annual reports on its own staffing, etc., then it’s probably the EEO State &Local Government job families that are relevant.)

There is more that could be said about Census's EEO special tabulations of workforce. But the advice above is just to get you started.

Enjoy!

--Todd Graham