RACE AND EMPLOYMENT IN THE FEDERAL SECTOR

The use of probit analysis with partial observability demonstrates the presence of a queue for federal jobs and confirms that race plays a role in determining who works for the federal government. Specifically, non-whites are disproportionately represented among federal workers not because they are disproportionately in the queue, but because they are disproportionately chosen from the queue. Thus, the federal government acts as a 'model' employer by being more likely to hire minorities instead of having a pool of potential employees which differs in racial composition from that available to the private sector. © 1990.