The EEOC released its yearly statistics and it’s interesting to put together a story line from the numbers.  Here are three quick observations from my review of the stats:

1) Big Drop in New Cases: Perhaps not surprisingly given the improving economy, the number of new claims filed with the EEOC dropped by nearly 5000 claims, to 88,778.  That’s down from the peak of nearly 100,000 claims in 2010-2012.  In fact, it’s the lowest number of claims filed since 2007 — the year before the recession hit.  Will this trend continue? I’d say there is little doubt of that, until the economy stops its rebound.

2) Retaliation Claims Increase as Percentage of Claims: Against predictions that recent Supreme Court cases would lead to a drop in retaliation cases, the opposite has happened.   Retaliation claims in fact now make up 42.8 percent of all claims filed — up from just 36% in 2010.  The rumors of the death of the retaliation claim appear to have great exaggerated for now.  Of course, these numbers do not take into account the odds on succeeding on this claim, but it’s a number definitely worth watching.

3) Connecticut Claims Remain Relatively Constant:  The number of charges filed directly with the EEOC has remained relatively constant. That’s not much of a surprise given that the EEOC is not the first choice of most people in the state. The CHRO serves as the agency of first resort for many.  While it has a small sample size, the trend of increasing retaliation cases is also seen in Connecticut claims as well and constitute 42 percent of all charges filed.