Iowa Lags in Hiring African-Americans

Some disappointing news for MLK Day: A new state report shows that while Iowa may be improving on meeting federal minority hiring practice standards, it continues to lag behind in offering interviews to African-Americans.

In 2007, Democratic Governor Chet Culver mandated changes to the state’s procedures; but a class-action lawsuit alleges that hiring and promotion bias in state government continues.

According to the report, when all minorities are factored together, the state in 2007 and 2008 nearly met federal guidelines that say minorities must be at least 80 percent as likely as whites to land an interview. Iowa’s percentage was 78.9 percent.

But a presentation this month to the state’s diversity council by the Iowa attorney general’s office indicates that the black-only qualified applicant interview rate in 2007 and 2008 was about 65 percent of the white interview rate.

Minority advocates say that means fewer blacks are being hired, because black candidates applying for jobs are roughly a third less likely to land interviews than their white peers.