EEO Classifications: The 10 Job Categories and Reporting Rules

EEO classifications are the standardized categories employers use to describe their workforce on the EEO-1 report: ten job categories that sort every employee by function, seven race and ethnicity groups, and a binary male-or-female designation for sex. Placement is based on what an employee actually does, not the words on their business card. Getting it right matters because the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission uses the aggregated data to look for discrimination patterns and target enforcement.

The Ten Job Categories

Every employee on an EEO-1 report lands in exactly one of these ten categories.¹

Executive and Senior-Level Officials and Managers. Top leadership that sets strategy and policy, typically within two reporting levels of the CEO. Chief officers, managing partners, division presidents.
First and Mid-Level Officials and Managers. Managers who carry out senior-level policy and run business units or departments. Regional directors, plant managers, department heads.
Professionals. Roles requiring a four-year degree or equivalent specialized experience. Engineers, accountants, attorneys, physicians.
Technicians. Positions built on specialized technical knowledge, often supporting professional work. Lab technicians, IT support specialists, paralegals.
Sales Workers. Employees whose main function is direct, non-managerial selling. Retail associates, insurance agents.
Administrative Support Workers. Clerical, office support, and secretarial roles. Bookkeepers, receptionists, data entry clerks.
Craft Workers. Skilled trades that require apprenticeships or significant training. Electricians, carpenters, machinists, plumbers.
Operatives. Semi-skilled workers who run machinery, equipment, or vehicles. Assemblers, forklift operators, truck drivers.
Laborers and Helpers. Positions needing minimal training and centered on physical tasks. Material loaders, cleaners, basic construction labor.
Service Workers. Roles providing direct services to people. Food preparation, building security, janitorial work, personal care.

How to Classify When Titles and Duties Don’t Match

The most common mistake employers make is classifying by job title instead of actual duties. An employee whose title says “analyst” but who spends most of the workweek on clerical data entry belongs in Administrative Support Workers, not Professionals.¹ For someone whose day is genuinely split across two kinds of work, report them in the category where they spend the most hours.

There is a particular trap around supervisors. First-line supervisors who do the same work as the people they oversee generally belong in the same category as their crew, not in a management category. A shift supervisor on a factory floor who also runs equipment is an Operative, not a First or Mid-Level Manager.¹ The management categories are for people whose actual job is running the business or the department, not for anyone with a supervisory sliver in their duties.

Race and Ethnicity Groups

Alongside job category, employers report each employee’s race or ethnicity using one of seven groups. Self-identification is the preferred method, and every employee must be given the chance to identify voluntarily.²

Hispanic or Latino. People of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
White. People with origins in Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
Black or African American. People with origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
Asian. People with origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent.
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. People with origins in Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
American Indian or Alaska Native. People with origins in the original peoples of North and South America who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment.
Two or More Races. People who identify with more than one racial group (non-Hispanic).

The final data grid on the report crosses these seven groups with the ten job categories, broken out by sex.

Sex Reporting

For the 2024 data collection cycle, the EEO-1 offers only binary options, male or female, for reporting sex. The EEOC removed a previously available option for nonbinary employees to align the form with Executive Order 14168, signed January 20, 2025. The agency has not published guidance on where to count nonbinary workers within the binary framework, so employers with those employees should consult legal counsel before filing.

When an Employee Won’t Self-Identify

If an employee declines to state their race or ethnicity, the employer still has to report a category. The EEOC instructs employers to use existing employment records or visual identification to make the call.² Whatever demographic data you collect should be kept separate from the main personnel file so that managers making hiring, promotion, or discipline decisions never see it.

Who Has to Use These Classifications

The EEO-1 Component 1 report has been mandatory since 1966, under Section 709(c) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.³ Private employers with 100 or more employees during any pay period in the fourth quarter of the reporting year must file.⁴

The picture for smaller federal contractors is unsettled. Until January 2025, federal contractors and first-tier subcontractors with 50 or more employees and a government contract of at least $50,000 also had to file, under Executive Order 11246 and 41 CFR 60-1.7. Executive Order 14173, signed January 21, 2025, revoked Executive Order 11246, and the Department of Labor stopped enforcing the associated regulations.⁵ In July 2025, DOL proposed a rule to formally rescind 41 CFR Part 60-1, including the contractor filing mandate. Contractors with 100 or more employees still have to file under Title VII regardless. Contractors with 50 to 99 employees who filed only because of their government contract should watch the final rulemaking.

The Workforce Snapshot

Every EEO-1 is built from a single pay period the employer picks from the fourth quarter, October 1 through December 31. Head count during that pay period decides who appears on the report and whether the company crosses the 100-employee threshold. Pick a pay period that reflects your normal staffing; a week when half the workforce was on furlough produces a distorted snapshot.

Remote employees are reported under the physical location they report to. If a remote worker has no brick-and-mortar site, use the supervisor’s location. If neither the employee nor the supervisor has a physical location, report the employee under headquarters. Fully remote businesses use the location where the business is registered. A home address is never the establishment on an EEO-1.

Deadlines and Where to File

The EEOC sets the filing window each year and the dates move. For the 2024 reporting year, the portal opened May 20, 2025 and closed June 24, 2025. The window for the 2025 reporting year, which most employers will file in 2026, has not been announced. The agency posts the dates on its EEO data collections page a few months before the portal opens.⁴ Filing is electronic through the EEOC portal.

There is no automatic fine for skipping the report, but the EEOC can ask a federal district court to order a non-filing employer to comply, and it does. In 2023 the agency sued 15 employers across multiple federal courts for repeatedly failing to submit their reports.⁶ Filing a report with information the employer knows to be false is a separate and more serious problem, with potential criminal exposure for false statements to a federal agency. File on time, and make a genuine effort to place each employee in the right category.

1
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EEO-1 Job Classification Guide
2
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EEO-1 Instruction Booklet
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 2000e-8 – Investigations
4
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EEO Data Collections
5
Federal Register. Rescission of Executive Order 11246 Implementing Regulations
6
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EEOC Sues 15 Employers for Failing to File Required Workforce Demographic Reports