The City of Sacramento continues to diversify its workforce to better reflect the community it serves, according to a new report released by the City Auditor.
The report, which was presented to the City Council on Tuesday, analyzes employee trends from 2016 through 2021 to better understand gaps in representation among people who work for the City.
Among its findings: The percentage of Hispanic or Latino and Asian non-management employees has increased over the five-year period, from 17 percent to 20 percent and from 8 percent to 9 percent respectively.
This trend also held true for management employees, with Hispanic or Latino managers increasing from 8 percent to 14 percent and Asian managers increasing from 10 percent to 12 percent.
Meanwhile, the percentage of white employees working for the City has decreased in both non-management and management positions, going from 54 percent to 50 percent and 64 percent to 57 percent respectively.
The percentage of Black or African American employees in both those categories also decreased, from 11 percent to 10 percent and 10 percent to 8 percent.
One of the biggest areas of change involved female employees. From 2016 to 2021, the percentage of women in management positions increased from 34 percent to 40 percent.
“While the report reflects trends that are encouraging signs of workforce diversity, it also reflects areas of where there is needed improvement,” City staff wrote in a letter to the auditor. “The City recognizes that to meet our workforce equity goal requires ongoing, sustained and systemic effort that commits to engaging with staff, leadership and stakeholders throughout the organization.”
To achieve its objective of having City of Sacramento employees reflect the demographics of its residents, the City in 2018 hired its first diversity and equity manager, Aimée Zenzele Barnes.
Since then, Barnes has launched the City’s Race and Gender Equity Action Plan, which calls for a coordinated and collective response to reach the following overarching goals:
- Significant increase in employment, retention and promotion of people of color and women.
- Improved communication, internally and externally regarding outreach, recruitment and hiring processes.
- Provide best practices resources to hiring managers in order to increase equity.
- Develop new internal and external partnerships to move workforce equity forward.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the City of Sacramento has an estimated population of 524,943 residents. Of that number, 30 percent are white, 29 percent are Hispanic, 17 percent are Asian, 13 percent are Black or African American, 6 percent are two or more races, 3 percent are Filipino, 2 percent are Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, 0.5 percent are American Indian or Alaska Native and 0.7 percent are other.
In addition, City of Sacramento residents are 51 percent female and 49 percent male.
Looking for more information on the gender and ethnic diversity of the City’s workforce? The City Auditor’s Office also maintains this comprehensive data dashboard.