If the trend since 1965 in the employment of black professionals continues, the under-representation of blacks among professionals in the Field will improve measurably. In contrast, no such improvement could be expected concerning the inequitable distribution of blacks in professional positions. At the rate given by the trend since 1968 (which is the time period over which the salary difference between black, and all professionals has decreased most markedly) it would still take well over a decade for blacks 11/ to gain an equitable distribution. b. Status of nonblack minorities Department-wide underutilization The representation of the nonblack minorities in the Department's professional workforce, 3.1 percent, is far below their goal of 8.0 percent. The under-representation of these employees is especially acute in the National Office where they comprise only 0.9 percent of the profesIn the Field, 5.2 percent of all professionals sional staff. In the Field, are nonblack minorities. (Chart 7, p. 31 ). 11/The historical data used in this section are not available for nonblack minorities or women. Chart 7. PERCENT OF PROFESSIONALS IN EACH GRADE LEVEL Source: Tables 8, 17, and 26 pp. 256, 260, 31 In contrast to blacks, nonblack minority professionals are distributed nearly equitably in the Department. The average salary of nonblack minority males and females in the National Office and of females in the Field is as large as that for all professionals. Nonblack minority male professionals in the Field are in slightly lower positions than all male professionals there as indicated by the 4 percent salary difference between these groups of employees. It should be noted that nonblack minority professionals in the Field comprise three-quarters of all nonblack minority professionals in the Department. (Tables 2, 11, and 20, pp. 252, 258, and 261). Underutilization in administrations and regions The use indices for each administration show that only LMSA is even half-way toward achieving parity for nonblack The overall use index for the Department is minorities. a very low .36. (Chart 8, p. 33 ). 12/ These low use indices result, in part, from measuring the representation of the nonblack minorities in each region against the National minimum standard of 8 percent. It might be unrealistic to require regions in which nonblack minorities constitute much less than 8 percent of the local population to achieve this standard. See the "Goals and Timetables" section for a more complete discussion. |