Employment and Wage & Hour Statistics Focus: Equal Employment Opportunity Census

The Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Census is a tabulation created every ten years for the purpose of serving as an external benchmark for comparing the composition of a company’s workforce to that of the external labor market within a specific geographic area and job category. The EEO Census provides worker counts based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, education level, industry, occupation, and geography. While the raw data is not readily available, 24 tables provide counts for varying cuts of the data.

The EEO Census is most often seen in Affirmative Action Plans and EEO Commission compliance reviews. It is also useful in the litigation setting companies when there are allegations of discrimination.

For more information, please refer to: www.census.gov/hhes/www/eeoindex/eeoindex.html

Employment and Wage & Hour Statistics Focus: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries

The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, provides data on the number of fatal on-the-job injuries by type, occupation, industry, or worker characteristics. This data is sometimes used to statistically value a life. Dangerous jobs tend to offer a wage premium in exchange for additional risk of death on the job. Some economists have attempted to quantify the value of life based on the additional wages that must be paid for a worker to accept an increased chance of a fatal accident.

For more information, visit www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfoi1.htm

Employment and Wage & Hour Statistics Focus: Census

Conducted every ten years, the Census is the largest survey in the United States. The 2010 Census represented the most massive participation movement ever witnessed in the US, with approximately 74% of households returning their census by mail. The Census Bureau hired about 635,000 employees to walk through neighborhoods throughout the United States to count the remaining households.

The 100% characteristics form was used with every person and housing unit in the United States. It includes information on sex, age, and race by geographic location. Census data is available at many geographic levels, including blocks, zip codes, county, and state.

The 2010 Census asked detailed questions that include information on educational attainment, marital status, labor-force status, and income. The Census is a very large database and hence has many uses ranging from racial profiling in police-stop baselines to wage data.

For more information, please go to www.census.gov/