With the economy still reeling, Hampton University didn't get its usual contingent of 100 employers at its fall 2009 career fair for students and alumni. But one sector was there in force - federal government agencies looking for candidates for career positions.  

"Government agencies come every time," says Vivian David, director of the university's career center. Agencies such as the FBI, Census Bureau, State Department and Patent and Trademark Office are among those that frequently send recruiters to Hampton for such events. "They actively recruit," David says, and students seem to respond positively. "It's a brand that's popular on campus."

 Recruitment of African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian-Americans is a priority across the federal government. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must report annually on minority employment, and its findings show some gains. Overall, minorities were 33 percent of the federal work force in 2008, meaning they were over-represented in government compared with the rest of the U.S. work force. Together, these groups represented 29 percent of the civilian labor force last year.

 But a more in-depth look at the data yields mixed results. On the positive side, African-Americans represent 18 percent of all federal workers, compared with 10 percent of the civilian labor force. But Hispanics account for 13 percent of U.S. workers and only 7.9 percent of federal employees.

Minorities also fare worse among the cadre of federal senior executives. Of 6,100 senior government executives, only about 200 are African-American, says the African American Federal Employees Association, a coalition seeking to improve that figure. "If our nation is to continue to grow and maintain its position of leadership in the world, our federal leadership needs to reflect the diversity of the American culture," association president William Brown said in a statement.

 To address these issues, minority-serving colleges and universities are active in internship programs that may increase the pipeline of qualified federal employees. One of the largest is the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities National Internship Program (HNIP), which brought 680 students this year to Washington, D.C., or other locations for jobs at federal agencies. "We've become a human-resource pipeline for federal agencies," HNIP Executive Director Maria Elena Vivas-House says. "For many federal agencies, it can be a challenge to reach Latinos. We do that job for them."