The Strategic Plan serves as a framework for the Commission to achieve its mission through the implementation of three strategic objectives the EEOC is now proposing to champion:

1. Combat and prevent employment discrimination through the strategic application of EEOC’s law enforcement authorities.
2. Prevent employment discrimination and promote inclusive workplaces through education and outreach.
3. Achieve organizational excellence.

Subsequent outcomes and performance measures are also outlined, see pages 14-17 of the EEOC’s draft Plan.

The EEOC is soliciting comments from their public partners, including employers covered by one or more of the statutes the Commission enforces, advocacy groups and individuals.

Action Item:

DirectEmployers will be submitting comments on our Members’ behalf. Review the draft plan and watch for a Survey Monkey link to come next week.

Bottom Line:

The OFCCP is currently already at its lowest headcount since its start-up in the mid-1960s and is sure to face additional budget cuts for FY2018 (that budget is still being negotiated on Capitol Hill, see OFCCP Week in Review: September 18, 2017). Nonetheless, OFCCP audits are still underway, albeit at a record slow pace at just under 1,000/year nationwide. The number of audits OFCCP will conduct in the remainder of FY2018 will now reduce further in lock step with the shrinking numbers of OFCCP investigators. Moreover, the pace of many of those audits will be further slowed as OFCCP managers reassign audit responsibilities, including reassigning audits across OFCCP District Office lines to available investigators in the wake of exiting OFCCP investigators.

• The civilian unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, remained steady at its 17-year low at 4.1%.
  • That leaves about 6.6 million people short-term unemployed with some unknown percentage of those individuals available for hire.
• Manufacturing hit a new record low unemployment figure of 2.6%. Side note: “Full employment” in America is now thought to be about 4.6% (so a percentage unemployment figure lower than the “full employment” percentage means that tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs are currently going unfilled).
• Construction unemployment (nationwide) is surprisingly high at 5%.
• The veteran unemployment rate is 4.0%, down from 4.8% last November. See the full Veteran Employment update here. Expect OFCCP to soon lower (again) its “Protected Veterans” Benchmark for Hires, currently at 6.7% (since last adjusted downward from 6.9% on March 31, 2017).
• Over the year, the unemployment rate is down by ½ percentage point and the number of unemployed is down by almost 800,000 persons.
  • However, the unemployment rate for teenagers increased to 15.9% in November.
• The jobless rates by gender and race stayed relatively steady: adult men (3.7%), adult women (3.7%), Whites (3.6%), Blacks (7.3%), Asians (3.0%), and Hispanics (4.7%).

Recruiters:

• The number of “long-term unemployed” (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged (about 1.6M persons). This group accounts for almost 25% of the unemployed and has been the pool to supply over 34% (275,000) of the new hires over the past year. Companies need special strategies to find this pool of prospective employees and may require revamped and specialized onboarding procedures to properly transition these new hires so long out of touch with the marketplace.
• The number of persons employed part-time who wished they worked full-time remained unchanged at 4.8M available persons, even though this has been a superior pool from which to make full-time hires (over 858,000) over the past year.

Action Items:

To be successful in recruiting in these days, when recruitment pools are shrinking, employers must be resourceful and design ways to tap into the diversity, disability, part-time and “longer-term unemployment” pools where most employers have been harvesting the majority of their recruits over the last year. Individuals with disabilities and minorities continue to be the largest groups facing unemployment.

Harris holds a law degree from Washington and Lee University and has a diverse background in employment law, setting him up well for his new role. He has worked as the Assistant Attorney General in Richmond, Virginia, practiced management-side labor and employment law as a Partner at LeClair Ryan and has offered consulting services throughout his career. He held a Senate-confirmed post in George W. Bush’s Justice Department where he worked with communities across the United States in resolving race, color, and national origin conflicts. His employment law practical experience from both the public and private sectors is an exciting addition to a team faced with so much recent scrutiny and calls for reform.

How We Got Here:

• “Craig Leen Settling in at OFCCP as the “Senior Advisor” and Not as OFCCP Director” OFCCP Week in Review: December 4, 2017.
• “Breaking News! OFCCP Director Named” OFCCP Week in Review: November 13, 2017.

The suit, which was filed against OMB, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and government officials, seeks to reinstate the requirement that companies with 100 or more employees report how much they pay their workers by race, gender, and ethnicity.

As things stand now, the pay component of the EE0-1 report is still on hold and will not be a required reporting field on the March 31, 2018, EEO-1 Report.

How We Got Here:

• “Pay Data Collection – Not Dead Yet” see OFCCP Week in Review: September 25, 2017.
• “Pay Component of EEO-1 Put on Hold” see OFCCP Week in Review: September 5, 2017.