U) Hispanic Representation in the Military and Civilian Sectors: Lessons Learned and Recommendations from the Literature

In the military, Hispanic servicemembers are underrepresented in the higher enlisted and officer paygrades, which mirrors trends in the private sector, in which Hispanic workers are disproportionately underrepresented in leadership positions and professional occupations. [...] CNA Research Memorandum | 3 Hispanic Representation In this section, we describe the historical representation of Hispanic people in both the civilian labor market and DOD to illustrate that challenges in attaining and maintaining Hispanic representation are not unique to the Services. [...] For enlisted personnel, Hispanic representation in the Armed Forces has steadily grown from 11.7 percent in 2009 to 19.6 percent in 2019, although it remains below the 2019 civilian benchmark of 19.9 percent [26].1 Similarly, 1 The civilian benchmark is the share of Hispanic people in the 18- to 44-year-old civilian labor force. [...] Within the AC, Hispanic servicemembers make up 21.9 percent of the E-1 to E-4 population versus 19.9 percent of the civilian 18- to 44-year-old labor force [26].4 This civilian benchmark also reveals that Hispanic servicemembers are underrepresented in the AC’s higher enlisted paygrades, accounting for 17.8 and 15.2 percent of the E-5 to E-6 and E-7 to E-9 paygrades, respectively [26].5 The Hispan. [...] Strategies employed in the private sector to increase Hispanic retention and promotion Having reviewed strategies that have been employed (or recommended) to increase Hispanic retention and promotion opportunities in the military, we now turn to a review of what the civilian literature finds to be most effective.