Lyndon B. Johnson photo

White House Statement on Employment of Members of Minority Groups in the federal Government.

March 03, 1964

OPPORTUNITIES for minority employees in the federal Government are getting better every year, President Johnson revealed today. A new study of federal employment made in June 1963 shows impressive gains in the number of higher paid jobs filled by Negroes and other minorities.

Negro employment worldwide reached a new high of 301,889, up 3 percent from June 1962. In grades GS-9 through GS-11 of the classified service ($6,675 to Negroes held 7,016 positions, an increase of 1,146 or 19.5 percent. In grades GS-12 through GS-18 ($9,475 to $20,000) they held 1,952 positions for a gain of 545 or 38.7 percent. Similar rates of increase occurred in upper level blue collar and postal positions. Negro employment was 13.1 percent of the 2,298,808 employment total.

Spanish-speaking employment totaled 51,682 for an increase of 2 percent in the previous year. There were 2,178 Spanish-speaking employees in grades GS-9 through GS-11, up 304 or 16.2 percent. In GS-12 through GS-18 their employment totaled 785, an increase of 161 or 25.8 percent. In the wage board pay range from $6,500 to $7,999 the increase was 1,380 or 56.3 percent. At $8,000 and above the increase was 119 or 74.8 percent.

The President said he was pleased at the remarkable progress achieved by the Government's equal employment opportunity program for the second successive year. "This is the result of affirmative and persistent efforts by the federal agencies to hire, train, and promote solely on the basis of merit without irrelevant considerations of race or ancestry," he said. "Utilization studies at the beginning of the program disclosed skills and potential among our minority employees which had been overlooked in the past. We had some catching up to do. These changes in the minority employment picture do not reflect special privilege. They are the result of insistence by President Kennedy, the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, which I headed as Vice President, and the agencies themselves that employees be hired, promoted, and upgraded on the basis of merit alone."

The study provided year-to-year comparisons also on four smaller minority groups which were measured in selected States. Employment of Mexican-Americans in five Southwestern States increased 1 percent to 33,925. In grades GS-9 through 11 their employment totaled 1,269 for an increase of 216 or 20.5 percent compared with an increase in the total number of such jobs in the area of only 6.9 percent. In the highest grades, GS-12 through 18, there were 241 Mexican-American employees, an increase of 84 or 53.5 percent (compared with a total increase in this category of 13.2 percent).

The number of Puerto Rican employees in four Eastern States (Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) declined slightly because of a dip in general federal employment there. Nevertheless, Puerto Rican employment still increased in some of the higher paid jobs. In wage board jobs paying $6500 through $7999 the increase was 194 positions, up 388 percent compared with a general increase of 42.2 percent in this category.

American Indian employees in seven selected States totaled 10,569 or 2.7 percent of total employment, for a substantial increase of 18.6 percent during the year. Oriental-Americans employed on the Pacific coast (States of California, Oregon, and Washington) increased by 8.3 percent to a new total of 10,158.

Data is from the third annual minority census in Government employment, made by the Civil Service Commission for the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. It covered 1,103,051 classified employees, 560,211 wage board employees, 582, 475 postal field service employees, and 53,071 employees under other pay systems. Statistics showing the minority employment pattern by agency and by State and selected metropolitan statistical areas will be made available as soon as the processing of data is completed.

A comparison of minority employment in the 2-year period June 1961 to June 1963 showed a net increase of nearly 20,000 Negroes. The 2-year gain for Negroes in grades GS-5 through GS-11 was 8,963 positions or 36.6 percent, compared to a total increase in these grades of 11 percent. In grades GS-12 through GS-18 the gain was 915 positions or 88.2 percent (compared to a total increase of 22.9 percent).

In the Postal field Service the 2-year gain in PFS-5 through 11 was 1,356 positions or 32.3 percent (compared with a general increase of 5.6 percent) and in PFS-12 through 20, where there was a decline overall of 3.6 percent, the Negro increase was 14 positions or 127.3 percent.

Data on the 2-year period is not available for the other minorities.

Lyndon B. Johnson, White House Statement on Employment of Members of Minority Groups in the federal Government. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239732

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