Federal Race Data Revamp Gives EEOC More Precise Worker Insights

The EEOC’s implementation of recently finalized federal race and ethnicity reporting categories, including the introduction of “Middle Eastern or North African,” paves the way for more precise data collection and reporting at the agency.

In addition to creating a new reporting category for “MENA” employees who previously had to identify on forms as “White,” the Office of Management and Budget’s finalized revisions to standards for data collection on racial background include using a single combined race and ethnicity question that allows multiple responses. This will change how Hispanic people are counted, no longer placing them into a separate ethnic category. ...