Page 8 - 2002 2nd Quarter - SHRM Emerald Coast Chapter Newsletter

Page 8

The Changing Face of America Quiz Answers (from Page 5)

1. What percent of the U.S. population is black?
Answer: a) 12 percent. More than 25 percent of Americans are people of color (blacks, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics). Eleven percent of management / professional people are black.

2. During the past ten years, the Hispanic population has increased by what percent?
Answer: d) 53 percent. Hispanics are the fasted-growing minority in the U.S. (Caucasians have increased only 35 percent in the last ten years.) Hispanics now number about 24 million and are expected to increase another 48 percent by 1999. By the year 2010, Hispanics will be the largest minority in America.

3. By the year 2005, what percent of newcomers into the job market will be native-born white males?
Answer: a) 14.5 percent.

4. What percent of people in the U.S. were born between 1955 and 1965?
Answer: d) 25 percent. There are 49 million of these 30– to 40-year-olds (baby boomers), and they are changing the economic and social structure of America.

5. Approximately what percent of women between the ages of 25 and 34 are now in the workforce?
Answer: d) 75 percent. Because these are the childbearing years, this will affect the way companies treat child care and maternity/paternity leave.

6. Approximately what percent of all working-age women are now in the workforce?
Answer: c) 60 percent. Less than 75 percent of all working-age men are in the workforce. Women in management have increased 24 percent since 1980; they now number 6.1 million. Hon Naisbistt, author of Megatrends, believes this changing role of women in our society is the most significant change in this
century.

7. One out of how many black households makes more than $50,000 per year?
Answer: d) 1 out of 8 (13 percent).

8. The best educated, most affluent households in America are of what ancestry?
Answer: b) Asian / Pacific Islander. Asians have the highest income per household (not per individual, however), with more than 32 percent earning more than $50,000 per year, contrasted with 29 percent of Caucasian families. They also have the highest number of people with more than five years of college. And 39 percent of Asian Americans finish college, compared to 17 percent for the general population.

9. To be protected under the Age Discrimination Act of 1987, you must be at least:
Answer: a) 40 years old.

10. The median age for first marriages is now:
Answer: c) 25 (up three years since 1975).

11. How many interracial marriages were there in the U.S. in 1993?
Answer: c) 1.2 million, as contrasted with only 200,000 in 1960. Interracial and interethnic marriage is not new, but during the past two decades, America has produced the greatest variety of hybrid households in the history of the world. As ever-increasing numbers of couples break through racial, ethnic, and religious barriers to invent a life together, we must rethink and redefine our views about these unions.

12. How many people listed “Other” as their racial category in the 1990 census?
Answer: d) 9.8 million (4 percent), as contrasted with 200,000 in 1960.

13. The largest majority of immigrants to the U.S. comes from what country?
Answer: a) Mexico (6.2 million). The Philippines ranks second with 1 million.

14. What percent of the workforce is employed by foreign-owned companies?
Answer: d) 4 percent.