December 1974.' The occupational series in this count include professional statisticians (the 1530 job series), mathematical statisticians (1529), economists (110), operations research employees (1515), actuaries (1510), and social science analysts (101). The paraprofessionals included are those classified as statistical assistants (the 1531 job series). This number clearly underestimates the count of employees working in Federal statistical programs, because not all employees working in Federal statistical programs are in these six occupational series. The Subcommittee on Census and Statistics of the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service of the U.S. House of Representatives published six biennial reports on the statistical activities of the Federal Government from 1961 to 1971. The 1971 report of the Subcommittee indicated that 45,687 employees, representing 27,499 man-years of effort, were involved in Federal statistical activities. The Subcommittee surveyed all agencies listed in Statistical Services of the United States Government and/or in the Federal Statistical Directory. This criterion partially explains the substantially larger counts reported by the Congress. The second reason for the higher counts is that Congress included all persons employed in statistical work even if their occupational classifications were not in the Civil Service Statistical Series. In fact, in 1971 the Congress included all employees of eight organizations, regardless of their job classification. The congressional reports also listed all agencies, excluding those in the Department of Defense, with reported salary costs of $1,000,000 or more for statistical activities. In 1971, 29 met this criterion. Only 18 of the 29 are also identified as major statistical agencies in this Framework. Numbers of Statistical Personnel in the Federal According to the Civil Service Commission's data, 76 Federal agencies had one or more statisticians in December 1974.' The Social and Economics Statistics 'U.S. Civil Service Commission. Unpublished data (December 1974) from the Central Personnel Data File, Bureau of Manpower Information Systems. U.S. Congress, House, Subcommittee on Census and Statistics, Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, 1971 Report of Statistical Activities of the Federal Government. 92nd Cong., 2nd Sess., 1972, H. Rept. 92-926 (pp. 12-21). Subcommittee on Census and Statistics, Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, 1969 Report of Statistical Activities of the Federal Government. 91st Cong., 2nd Sess., 1970. H. Rept. 91-1085 (pp. 10-17). 'Detailed tables displaying the distribution of the statistical personnel employed by the Federal government as of December 1974 are available upon request from the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards. Administration (SESA), which was at that time composed of the Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, had the most statisticians, 721, or 33% of the total. The other four agencies with more than 60 statisticians were: the Statistical Reporting Service (SRS) in USDA (395); the Health Resources Administration (HRA), of which NCHS was a part, in DHEW (146); the Department of Labor, which includes BLS, (91); and the Internal Revenue Service in Treasury (81). The Office of Education (OE), which included NCES, was 15th in the number of statisticians, having only 21. The five major statistical centers-SRS in USDA; the Census Bureau, here represented by all of SESA; NCHS, here represented by all of HRA; NCES, here represented by all of OE; and BLS, here represented by all of the Department of Labor-accounted for 63% of all of the statisticians in the Federal Government. Forty-nine agencies employed all of the mathematical statisticians on the Civil Service rolls. The top seven agencies in number of mathematical statisticians in December 1974 overlapped with those with the most statisticians. SESA (composed of the Census Bureau and BEA) in Commerce had 105, SRS in USDA had 40, and the Department of Labor had 34. The two agencies with the most mathematical statisticians were in the Defense Department-Army (132) and Navy (118). The other two in the top seven were both in DHEW-the Social Security Administration (45) and the Food and Drug Administration (34). NCHS in HRA ranked 14th with 15 mathematical statisticians, and NCES in OE ranked 15th with 14. The five major statistical centers together employed 25% of all of the mathematical statisticians. The Department of Defense (DOD) alone accounted for 36% of the total. Economists employed by the Federal Government were even more widely dispersed; they worked in 102 different agencies. Those with the most economists included only two of the statistical centers-the Labor Department, including BLS (830), and the Census Bureau and BEA in SESA (227). The other agencies with over 200 economists each were the State Department (954), the Economic Research Service in USDA (518), the Army in the Department of Defense (225), and the Domestic and International Business Administration in Commerce (222). The NCHS and the NCES employed only 6 and 4 economists, respectively. SRS in USDA had none. The five statistical centers, taken together, employed 23% of the economists in the Federal Government. The three auxiliary statistical professionsoperations research employees, actuaries, and social science analysts-were represented in even smaller numbers in the five major statistical centers. The five centers accounted for 1% of the operations research employees, 6% of the actuaries, and 11% of the social science analysts. The Department of Defense, by contrast, employed 77% of the operations research professionals. Statistical assistants, the paraprofessional statistical occupation series, were employed in 105 agencies; 34% of them were employed in the five major statistical centers. The Department of Defense had 23%. The Census Bureau and BEA in SESA had the most (663), followed by Army (445), BLS and the rest of Labor (346), Navy (239) and SRS in USDA (236). These were the only agencies with more than 200 statistical assistants. NCHS and the rest of HRA had 43; NCES and the rest of OE had 15. In summary, the five statistical centers employed the following percentages of the statistical employees in the Federal Government: statistical professionals and statistical support employees than those with centers. The number of auxiliary statistical professionals seems independent in this comparison. The Departments with the oldest statistical centers-Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor-have the greatest number of statistical professionals. DHEW with two relatively new statistical centers has a greater number and proportion of auxiliary statistical professionals. Table 3 shows the distribution of the seven occupational series of statistical personnel in the 38 major statistical agencies. The percentages of the total Federal Government employment in the seven occupational series in these 38 major agencies are: Number and Distribution of Statistical Personnel in Major Statistical Collection, Analysis and Program Agencies Table 4 shows the number and distribution by type of agency of statistical personnel in 37 of the 38 major statistical agencies (the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, the central coordination agency, is omitted). At least 10 and probably 12 of the 14 statistical collection agencies have 40 or more statistical professionals (statisticians, mathematical statisticians, and economists). Only the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) in Justice have a smaller resource of statistical professionals with none and five, respectively. At least seven and probably TABLE 2. NUMBER OF FULL-TIME STATISTICAL PERSONNEL IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, BY DEPARTMENTS WITH AND WITHOUT STATISTICAL CENTERS: DECEMBER 1974 TABLE 3. NUMBER OF STATISTICAL PERSONNEL IN THE 38 MAJOR STATISTICAL AGENCIES, BY OCCUPATIONAL SERIES: DECEMBER 1974 TABLE 3. NUMBER OF STATISTICAL PERSONNEL IN THE 38 MAJOR STATISTICAL AGENCIES, BY OCCUPATIONAL SERIES: DECEMBER 1974-(Continued) See HEW/ASPE. Staffing numbers shown for ASPE include ASPE, ASHD, and other components of OS. 'All of DOL is shown together. DOL= BLS, ETA, etc. Data are missing for the Federal Reserve System. • Part or all of the numbers shown can be attributed to these agencies. Source: U.S. Civil Service Commission nine of the 14 have 40 or more statistical support personnel. Those below this level are the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) with 15, Policy Development and Research in HUD (with 33 for all of HUD), LEAA with none, the Environmental Protection Agency with 11 and the Federal Energy Administration with seven. The need for additional statistical personnel in these agencies should be examined. The five analysis agencies appear to be appropriately staffed with professional expertise. Staffing figures for the five statistical centers and BEA in Commerce were given for fiscal years 1976, 1977 (estimate) and 1978 (estimate) in Special Analysis G, "Principal Federal Statistical Programs," of the Budget of the U.S. Government-Fiscal Year 1978.10 The fact that these numbers are much larger than those shown in Table 4 may be substantially accounted for by the inclusion of employees in other than statistical occupational series in these counts. Unlike the congressional data, 10Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, Special Analyses-Budget of the United States Government-Fiscal Year 1978. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1977. TABLE 4. NUMBER OF STATISTICAL PERSONNEL IN 37 OF THE 38 MAJOR STATISTICAL AGENCIES, ' BY TYPE OF AGENCY: DECEMBER 1974 * See Commerce/Bureau of the Census. Figures for Commerce/SESA which included the Bureau of the Census and BEA are shown under the Bureau of the Census. * See HEW/NCES. Figures for both HEW/NCES (which used to be part of OE) and OE are shown under HEW/NCES. 'See HUD/PD & R. All of HUD is shown under PD&R. HUD includes PD&R, CPD, H, etc. "See DOL/BLS. All of DOL is shown under BLS. DOL includes BLS, ETA, etc. 'Data are missing for the Federal Reserve System. * See HEW/ASPE. Figures for all of the HEW/Office of the Secretary are shown under HEW/ASPE. OS includes ASPE, ASHD, etc. Part or all of the numbers shown can be attributed to these agencies. Source: U.S. Civil Service Commission |