The number of Latinos -- or lack of them -- working in key state jobs has been the subject of recent criticism by some of Illinois' highest-profile Latino officials.
Among them is U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez who at a recent town hall meeting called
it "intolerable" that the highest ranks of state
government lack Latinos and that there are disproportionately few among
the rank-and-file.
Behind the scenes, a coalition of some 40 policy advocates -- from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the
Latino Policy Forum to the Illinois Association of Hispanic State Employees -- have formed the ad hoc Illinois Latino Agenda to press for some hiring parity in key state agencies. When they announced that they were headed to Springfield last week to up the political pressure on state
officials, we decided to check out whether Latino workers are indeed as
underrepresented as advocates suggest.
We dug into the most recent census data and found that not only are Illinois Latinos disproportionately underrepresented in state government, their numbers are lagging when it comes to local and federal hiring as well. Here's how they stack up against other ethnic groups:
The Latino Policy Forum recently did their own analysis of the state's 2009 Agency Workforce Report. Based on those numbers, they concluded that Illinois officials would have to add 4,560 Latinos to the payroll to achieve parity. Little progress has been made to that end, though, with the state hiring only a fraction of Latinos -- 218 in all -- to fill some 3,681 jobs last year.
"Why haven't they been hired?" the Latino Policy Forum's Sylvia Puente tells us, "that's a question for every agency director and every governor."
None of which are Latino, of course.
Image courtesy Flickr/ RI4A.
Filed under: Government and Politics
The partial answer to your question is that the Census counts both citizens and non-citizens. The latter group includes many Latinos. Non-citizens, of course, are ineligible for government jobs.
You also haven't examined whether Latinos reside in reasonable proximity to the available jobs.
For all you've demonstrated "parity" may already have been achieved.