EEOC data offers another nugget

The Wall Street Journal obtained complete EEOC employment data through multiple FOIA requests, revealing that Black workers experienced unique job losses during the 1990-91 recession and that Black women's corporate advancement significantly outpaced Black men's between 1982 and 1992.

Persistence is paying off for the Wall Street Journal. Last month we reported that, after the paper requested Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) data, the reports arrived incomplete. It took three separate Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain the missing information. But with the completed files, Journal reporters found that among ethnic groups, only blacks suffered a net job loss in the 1990-91 recession.

In a story once again using EEOC data, the Journal recently reported that black women's gains in corporate America dramatically outstripped those of black men between 1982 and 1992. The information was gleaned from an analysis of 1.7 million EEOC reports, which included 1992 reports covering about a third of the civilian workforce. Considering that the EEOC reports include data on the race, gender and type of job held by 42 million U.S.

workers, this probably isn't the last we've seen of them.