By Dedrick Asante-Muhammad & Dr. Gabrielle Smith Finnie
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
For more than 60 years, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has required all private sector employers with 100 or more employees, and federal contractors with 50 or more employees to report racial, ethnic, and gender demographics of their workforce through the EEO-1 form. This data — covering more than 50 million employees at 73,000 employers — enhances transparency and reveals employment trends in job categories. The collection and dissemination of detailed workforce demographic data is essential to fulfilling EEOC’s mission of fair and inclusive workplaces with equal opportunity for all.
In July, the EEOC voted to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to repeal the requirement for private sector employers and federal contractors to file an annual report detailing employees’ race and sex. The proposed rule would eliminate the only federally collected source of business-level data on employment by race, ethnicity, sex, and job category. This data is integral to examining if Black workers are represented in specific job categories which range from service workers to Executive or Senior Level Officials and Managers. If adopted, the proposed rule would make workplace discrimination and occupational segregation harder to detect and prove.
At the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, we know this because our organization has depended on this kind of data for over half a century. Since our founding, the Joint Center has built an extensive body of workforce research that shows why demographic data matters for contextualizing employment and workforce trends. Our State of the Dream 2026 report highlighted that 2025 was a year marked by rising Black unemployment and economic regression. Last year Black unemployment rose to 7.5 percent in December. The unemployment rate and shifts in the workforce were impacted by attacks on policies and institutions historically intended to combat racial inequality.
Without detailed demographic data, occupational segregation and systemic barriers remain invisible. And what remains invisible cannot be addressed. This is precisely why EEO-1 data is irreplaceable. Analyzing if Black workers are in specific job categories like executive, managerial, and other senior leadership roles is critical and provides a broader assessment of representation beyond employment. EEO-1 is one of the few sources that shows whether people of color are underrepresented at the management and leadership level — not just in the workforce overall. According to EEO-1 data submitted by large employers, workers of color make up more than 40 percent of the workforce but hold only one in five executive or senior-level positions. In 2023, Black women and men remained underrepresented in senior roles. The gap between who is employed and who is advancing is an example of workforce opportunity gap that exist for Black workers in America.
Joint Center Senior Fellow Eric Morrissette wrote, “the Civil Rights Act does not require proving that someone is personally racist. It requires proving that a policy creates measurable, disproportionate harm.” Without the requirement for employers to file an annual report detailing workforce demographic data, including data by job category and sex and race or ethnicity, fewer measurable patterns of discrimination or occupational segregation being identified. This data collection serves as a crucial part of civil rights infrastructure as it provides essential evidence to enforce civil rights law.
For over 55 years, the Joint Center has believed that data is the precondition for justice. At a moment when Black workers face such acute vulnerability, stripping away the tools to identify occupational segregation and measure discrimination is unconscionable. We urge the EEOC to withdraw the proposed rule to rescind requirements for filing EEO demographic data collection reports, including the EEO-1 form. Reliable economic workforce data helps researchers, policymakers, advocates and industry leaders evaluate if our workforce systems are delivering on the promise of equal opportunity.
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad is president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, where he leads the organization’s work on the racial wealth divide and economic equity. He is co-founder of the State of the Dream report. Dr. Gabrielle Smith Finnie is senior policy analyst in the Joint Center’s Workforce Policy Program, where she focuses on evidence-based practices to ensure economic mobility for Black workers.
