Minorities in state government lag overall work force

Friday, July 21, 2000 | 1:36 a.m.

Of the state's 13,685-employee work force on April 1, 437 or 3.2 percent were of Asian descent. That's up nearly 25 percent from a year earlier when 350 or 2.5 percent of the state workers were Asian.

But even with that increase, overall state employment of minorities falls behind the percentage of minorities in the total Nevada work force.

Minorities account for 18.5 percent of the state work force, while 20.1 percent of all private and public workers in the state are minorities.

Blacks hold 6.9 percent of state jobs, Hispanics, 6.2 percent, and American Indians, 2.1 percent.

The figures were reported by Nevada Personnel Director Jeanne Greene as part of an annual survey of the state work force by sex and by racial background.

Greene said the biggest problem is the underrepresentation of Hispanic employees. Hispanics hold 6.2 percent of all state jobs, but make up 9.9 percent of the total Nevada work force.

The employment survey also shows nearly a 50-50 breakdown between men and women in state jobs.

But only 33.6 percent of higher-paying state administrative jobs are filled by women. That's a slight decline from 1999 when women held 35.5 percent of the administrative jobs.

While underrepresented in administrative jobs, women hold nearly 91 percent of the state's support or secretarial jobs.

Greene also noted the percentage of minority state employees showed a slight increase at a time when the total number of state workers dropped.

The number of state employees fell by 312 between April 1999 and April 2000, but the number of minority employees increased by 74.

About 1,500 jobs are being held vacant by Guinn in a move to cut costs of state government. The state also lost about 1,000 employees on Jan. 1 when the Employers Insurance Company of Nevada became a private mutual company.