Fed Board Employs Just One Black Economist, Diversity Data Show

The Federal Reserve employs just one Black male economist and no Black female economists at its Board in Washington, according to the central bank’s latest diversity data.

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Hispanic Americans make up 9.4% of the entire system’s economists, whereas more than 18% of the US population identifies as Hispanic, and just 14 economists across the system are Black, or about 1.5%, compared to about 12% of the country’s population. None of the economists identify as Native Hawaiian or American Indian.

{snip} More than 70% of the system’s economists are White and three quarters are male.

The central bank is the largest single employer of doctorate-level economists in the US and is charged with shepherding the economy by maintaining stable prices and maximum employment.

One bright spot for economist diversity is in the Fed’s employment of Asian Americans, which make up nearly 17% of the economist workforce, compared to 5.6% of the US population. {snip}

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