Report Finds Few Federal Latino Workers : Government: The under-representation, including only 1.1% of White House employees, is called shocking.

Latinos are severely under-represented in the federal work force and nowhere are their numbers lower than in the White House, according to a report released Wednesday.

Only 15 of the 1,312 employees in the Executive Office of the President, or 1.1%, were of Latino descent in 1990, down from 21 in 1984, said the National Assn. of Latino Elected Officials.

“These are some of the lead positions within the government,” said Harry Pachon, national director for the association. “We’re shocked, really. . . .”

The report, which was based on 1990 statistics compiled by the government, said Latinos composed 5.4% of the federal work force of 2.1 million, excluding military and postal employees. That compares to Latino representation of 7.7% in America’s civilian work force.

The study broke out figures for Latino employment in Cabinet-level departments. It included the White House, which employs comparatively few federal employees, because of its “symbolic importance in terms of showing leadership,” Pachon said.

“It’s only the slightest of exaggerations to claim that it would’ve been easier to find a Latino on the Mayflower than it is to find one in the President’s own Executive Office,” said Rep. Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles), president of the Latino organization’s board of directors.

A White House spokesman said he believes the Latino numbers are higher than the study indicates.

The Justice Department led all executive agencies in Latino hiring, with 9.6% of its work force of Latino descent. More than half of those employees worked for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, where 25.4% of workers are Latino, many of them employed in border areas. The Justice Department’s Drug Enforcement Agency also employed a comparatively high number of Latinos.

The Treasury Department was second among federal agencies, with Latinos composing 6.5% of the labor force. Many of those employees worked for the Customs Service.

Four percent of workers at the Commerce Department were Latino in 1990, but that figure was exaggerated by the temporary employment of Spanish-speaking census takers that year, according to Pachon.

The lowest level of Latino representation was found in the Interior, State, Transportation and Education departments, each of which were less than 4% Latino.

Those in hiring positions in Washington have done a good job of bringing blacks into the government, said Pachon. “We applaud that, but we need an equally good job in reaching beyond that population.”

Latinos also lag behind in federal hiring even in areas outside Washington with large Latino populations, the association said in a separate report. It showed, for instance, that Latinos held 9.7% of federal jobs in 1990 in California, where 25.8% of the population is of Latino descent.