DHS Diversity Examined

DHS has substantially more Hispanic employees than the government as a whole but fewer women and a lower percentage of minorities at the senior executive level, according to a report prepared by the House Homeland Security Committee. It said that the DHS workforce is 16.5 percent Hispanic, compared with 7.3 percent in the government overall, and 33.7 percent female, compared with 44.6 percent. The DHS averages among African Americans, Asians and other minority groups were about 1-3 percentage points below the government-wide averages. Among career senior execs DHS also has a higher percentage of Hispanics than the government overall, 5.4 vs. 3.4, but lower percentages of African Americans (6.5 vs. 8.5), Asians, (1.8 vs. 2.3), other minority groups (0.7 vs. 1.7), and women (25.3 vs. 28.9). "There are major DHS organizational components that have little or no representation of diversity in their career SES," it said, calling on DHS to increase diversity at its more senior levels.