Applying demographic analysis in affirmative action disputes: An instructional case

This instructional case study illustrates applications of demographic conce pts, data, and techniques in evaluating affirmative action goals for equali zing employment opportunity. Courts of law addressing employment discrimina tion disputes need an accurate picture of each minority group's proportion in a pool of prospective employees. The demographic and socioeconomic facto rs conditioning those proportions vary from place to place. In the situatio n examined here, the court originally used an imperfect population standard to set hiring goals. The case traces the multiple failures to account for those conditioning influences and describes the resulting distortions of le gal purpose. In analyzing this failure, students gain experience in clarify ing issues in dispute, devising measures to fit legal standards, and deline ating qualified labor pools. Specific instructional applications include: u sing census data to document how local population structure and composition determine each minority group's presence in the workforce; and using admin istrative data to delineate the relevant labor pools for setting affirmativ e action goals. Training is broadly suited to assignments where applied dem ographers must delineate the ethnic and racial composition of a pool of wor kers eligible to be hired or promoted.