Federal and state government employs 22 million people and directs trillions in spending. Latinos are 19% of the workforce, but supervisory, policy, and leadership roles consistently run 7–15%. The gap between who pays taxes and who shapes how they're spent is not a pipeline problem. It is a structural one.
| Occupation | Latino % · green line = 18.7% workforce benchmark | Gap vs. benchmark | Total employed | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First-line supervisors of correctional officers | 7.7% | -11.0pp | 50K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Postal service clerks | 10.9% | -7.8pp | 96K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Firefighters | 11.3% | -7.4pp | 352K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Social and community service managers | 12.6% | -6.1pp | 471K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service | 13.6% | -5.1pp | 63K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Other community and social service specialists | 13.7% | -5.0pp | 121K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Compliance officers | 13.9% | -4.8pp | 312K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Community and social service occupations | 14.7% | -4.0pp | 2,846K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Postal service mail carriers | 14.7% | -4.0pp | 371K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Detectives and criminal investigators | 15.3% | -3.4pp | 155K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Correctional officers and jailers | 15.6% | -3.1pp | 296K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators | 16.1% | -2.6pp | 52K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Private detectives and investigators | 18.2% | -0.5pp | 154K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Social workers, all other | 18.6% | -0.1pp | 596K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| First-line supervisors of police and detectives | 19.7% | +1.0pp | 107K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Probation officers and correctional treatment specialists | 20.6% | +1.9pp | 67K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Eligibility interviewers, government programs | 20.9% | +2.2pp | 90K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Child, family, and school social workers | 21.3% | +2.6pp | 83K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Police officers | 24.2% | +5.5pp | 705K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
| Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance | 24.7% | +6.0pp | 180K | BLS CPS Table 11, 2025 annual avg |
Benchmark: 18.7% = U.S. Latino share of civilian labor force (BLS CPS 2025 annual average). California benchmark: 40.3% (CA Latino population share, 2020 Census). The green vertical line in each bar marks the 18.7% national workforce benchmark.
Data & Methodology
Occupation data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey (CPS) Table 11, 2025 annual average. "Latino" = "Hispanic or Latino" per BLS CPS coding. All figures are annual averages of monthly survey estimates; small occupations (<50,000 workers) have higher margin of error.
Silicon Valley Technology figures sourced from cirlabs / Reveal News EEO-1 analysis of large tech employers, 2016 (most recent public EEO-1 release with race × job category × company detail). Internal job classifications differ from BLS CPS categories.
Gap = Latino % − 18.7% U.S. Latino workforce benchmark (BLS CPS 2025). Negative gap = underrepresented relative to workforce share. All data public domain. Script and source: github.com/turnerll/ligazon.