Multnomah County Employment Trends FY 2020 - FY 2022: Executive Summary
This report reviewed Multnomah County’s employment actions during fiscal years 2020, 2021 and 2022, a three-year period from July 2019 through June 2022. The goals are to support workforce equity efforts, make employment data more accessible and transparent, and understand major organizational trends in an effort to help the County plan for a workplace that is productive and supportive for all employees. We examined workforce demographics, as well as trends in hiring, separations, promotions and other employment movements.
Our analysis of employment trends at Multnomah County cannot explain the “why” behind the data; in many cases more research is needed to fully understand the results. Often, changes in the County workforce reflect larger demographic trends and historical contexts, which are themselves products of systemic racism that influence historical hiring patterns and workplace culture, including within Multnomah County.
The County must be prepared to serve changing populations while addressing inequities that were both inherited and perpetuated, adhering to our vision of diversity, equity, and inclusion for all employees. Furthermore, these data reflect trends resulting from important global, national, and local events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, social justice movements, and extreme weather events. We encourage you to interpret the information in these reports with this context in mind.
Both separation rates and hiring rates increased in FY 2022 for Regular employees
Separation and hiring rates reflect the number of employees in a group who separated or were hired in relation to the total number of employees in that group. For Regular employees, separation rates were stable between FY 2020 and FY 2021, but statistically significantly increased in FY 2022. The hiring rate decreased from FY 2020 to FY 2021, but saw a statistically significant increase in FY 2022 for Regular employees. There were also increases in hiring rates in FY 2021 for Limited Duration and Temporary employees, which may be attributed to the need for more staff to support the County’s response during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Newer hires are racially and ethnically more diverse than employees hired before FY 2020
The County hired proportionally more employees of color between FY 2020 and FY 2022 than it had in previous years. Between FY 2020 and FY 2022, 48% of hired Regular Represented employees identified as people of color compared to 37% of Regular Represented employees who were hired before FY 2020 identifying as people of color. This trend applied both countywide and in most departments.
Employees of color were promoted at a higher rate than White employees
Regular Represented Black and African American, Hispanic and Latino, and multi-racial employees (those who identify as being two or more races) received promotions at a higher rate than Regular Represented White employees. There was a similar pattern for Regular Non-represented employees of color — especially for Latino and Hispanic Regular Non-represented employees — the majority of whom are in supervisor, manager or leadership roles. However, unlike previous years, there were no differences across race and ethnicity groups in the likelihood of being promoted from Regular Represented (i.e., frontline staff positions) to Regular Non-represented (i.e., supervisory, management or leadership positions).
Voluntary separation rate for Black and African American employees increased
The voluntary separation rate of Regular Represented and Non-represented Black and African American employees had a larger increase compared to the voluntary separation rate of employees countywide. While involuntary and no fault (e.g., layoffs) separations were infrequent for both groups, countywide Regular employees had higher retirement rates than Black and African American employees. Although the diversity among Regular Represented employees increased during this time, the notable increase in voluntary separations for Regular Black and African American employees indicates that retention efforts for this group will be critical to maintaining and growing the racial and ethnic diversity of the workforce.
There was also a decrease in voluntary separations between FY 2020 to FY 2021 of Regular Represented employees who identify as having Two or More Races, from 6.2% to 3.4%, that then statistically significantly increased to 9.8% in FY 2022.
Regular Represented employees with disabilities also experienced a statistically significant increase in voluntary separations, from 2.7% in FY 2020 to 6.5% in FY 2021 and 8.8% in FY 2022. It should be noted, however, that there is unknown data regarding disability status for almost 50% of employees. Similarly, there is also a substantial amount of unknown data about Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation and Veteran status. We encourage employees to complete their demographic information in Workday to increase visibility, which can help improve the accuracy of the data for future analyses.
This report was produced by the Department of County Management Evaluation and Research Unit in collaboration with the Office of Diversity and Equity. However, it would not be complete without the contributions of Employee Resource Groups, Equity Managers, Central HR, Departmental HR, the Workday team, the Communications team, and County and departmental leadership. For questions or feedback about the report or dashboards, please contact the Evaluation and Research Unit at eru@multco.us.
For more information, see the full Multnomah County Employment Trends report, as well as department summaries.
You can also explore the data on your own using the dashboards.
