Summary of Changes to the Annual Report on the Federal Workforce for Fiscal Year 2020

The EEOC made several major changes to the Annual Report on the Federal Workforce for fiscal year (FY) 2020. These changes are summarized below.

Separate Reports on EEO Complaint Processing Activity and Workforce Statistics

The Annual Report on the Federal Workforce for FY 2015 through FY 2019 contained data on EEO complaint processing activity, workforce statistics, and EEO commitment in a single report. The EEOC also produced Special Topic Annual Reports that highlighted EEO issues, such as women in STEM and the EEO status of workers with disabilities in the Federal sector.

For FY 2020, the EEOC split the Annual Report in two—Part I: EEO Complaint Processing Activity and Part II: Workforce Statistics & EEO Commitment. The EEOC did this to make the reports more concise and to potentially improve the timeliness of their release. Splitting the Annual Reports and making them more concise may allow users to more quickly locate the information that they need.

In addition, the data used in these reports come from two separate data collections. The data used in Part I comes from the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Statistical Reports of Discrimination Complaints (Form 462). The deadline for submitting Form 462 for a given FY is October 31^st of the following FY. The data used in Part II comes from the Federal Agency Annual Equal Employment Opportunity Program Status Reports (MD-715 reports). The due date for submitting MD-715 reports for a given FY is February 28^th of the following FY. Given these staggered data collection deadlines, separating the Annual Report into two parts may allow earlier release of Part I.

The EEOC will continue to create topical reports on EEO in the Federal sector, but these will not be directly connected to the Annual Report on the Federal Workforce.

EEO Complaint Processing Activity

For conciseness, the EEOC removed all agency ranking tables from the body of the report. Alternatively, the source tables previously used to create these ranking are available for download at www.eeoc.gov. See “2020 Annual Report Complaints Tables (B-tables).”

Improved Workforce Statistics Information

To enhance the FY 2020 Annual Report’s utility for stakeholders, the EEOC has added information on workforce participation rate trends, revised the selected grade bands by which participation rates are reported, and added information on missing data.

The EEOC added five years of workforce data to help readers better understand long-term trends in Federal sector EEO. Federal agencies must also have participation rate goals for persons with disabilities and targeted disabilities in the General Schedule (GS) 1-10 grade band and the GS 11 through Senior Executive Service (SES) and Senior Pay grade band. Therefore, the report now examines these grade bands and a grade band for SES and Senior Pay alone. These changes apply to data on composition by race, ethnicity, gender, disability status, and targeted disabilities.

As in years past, this report only includes data from agencies that submitted and certified MD-715 reports. These missing data cause inaccuracy and annual fluctuations in the governmentwide numbers and percentages. Now, a complete list of agencies that failed to submit and certify FY 2020 MD-715 reports is provided with the Annual Report workforce tables found on the EEOC’s Federal Sector Reports webpage at https://www.eeoc.gov/federal-sector/reports