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M REPORT | 55 O R I G I NAT I O N S E R V I C I N G DATA G O V E R N M E N T S E C O N DA R Y M A R K E T THE LATEST DATA FHFA Reports Increase in Minority, Female Workers Minority populations grew to nearly 44% in 2018. I n its annual report to Con- gress, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reports that its minority population increased in 2019. The FHFA's minority popula- tion grew slightly to 43.94% from 42.93% in 2018. It had a minor- ity population of 40.97% in 2015. African Americans made up 22.05% of the workforce, Hispanics made up 2.02%, Asians made up 13.97%, Native Americans made up 0.17%, and those with two or more races made up 5.72%. Female representation reported a decline of 0.22 percentage points in 2019. "The slight decline was attributable to an increase in the overall number of employees in 2019 but with a countervailing in- crease in the number of men," the FHFA said, adding the number of minority women and men has grown since 2015. The total number of minor- ity females rose to 24.24% as of December 2019 from 23.43% in 2015. Of the 45 employees hired in 2019, minorities and women represented 51.11% and 44.44%, respectively. While the FHFA's hiring rate was higher for minori- ties than the federal workforce (36.86%), the hiring rate for wom- en remained above the federal workforce benchmark of 43.81%. Minorities and women pro- moted represented 53.85% and 61.54%, respectively, of the 39 employees promoted in 2019. Also, 46.15% of the promotions went to nonminority employees. African Americans made up 23.08% of promotions. The topic of diversity and inclusion has been garnering more attention in 2020, and the House Financial Service Committee held a hearing in February to review data on diversity and inclusion with banking institutions in the U.S. Chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee Maxine Waters (D-California) called a recent hearing "historic and groundbreaking." The 44 banks who submitted data have more than $50 billion assets, and Waters said the infor- mation provided is essential to the industry. "The information they have provided is illuminating and is something that the American public deserves to see," she said. The report found that banking institutions were 58% white in 2018, which was lower than the national average of 63%. African Americans made up 12% of the workforce populations of financial institutions, Hispanics accounted for 11%, and the Asian population was 12%. The Hispanic workforce in American averaged 16% and Asians accounted for 6%.