To get meaningful comparisons between large and small populations, we must look at proportions rather than totals. We want to know whether minority groups get their share of managerial and professional jobs, and we can do that by looking at the proportion of black managers to all managers, Hispanic managers to all managers and Asian managers to all managers.

The EEOC’s 2005 survey of large employers found that 14.8 percent of all Central Indiana workers were black. But blacks hold only 6.9 percent of managerial jobs and 6.9 percent of professional jobs in the region. Hispanics made up 5.1 percent of the sample, and an even smaller share of managers (1.8 percent) and of professionals (1.5 percent). As the chart shows, blacks and Hispanics are substantially underrepresented in management and professional jobs.

Asians serve in management positions less often than their proportion of all workers would expect, but far more often as professionals. Asians are 4.3 percent of Central Indiana professionals, despite being only 1.9 percent of the workforce in the EEOC survey. Of course, the number of Asian professionals in the region is only 2,641 – fewer than the 4,229 black professionals.

The chart compares the expected and actual level of employment for each racial/ethnic group. Those above the middle line have more than their proportional share, and those below have less. We did this to make it easier to compare the very large number of white managers and professionals with the smaller number in the other three groups.