On Monday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released statistics on Charges of Discrimination filed with the agency during fiscal year 2012, which concluded on September 30. The agency received 99,412 charges, a slight decrease from 2011. The EEOC announced that it pared its pending charge inventory by ten percent in 2012, reflecting quicker charge investigation and disposition times. The agency filed 122 lawsuits against employers in 2012, and collected $365.4 million in verdicts and settlements.

The breakdown on the charge statistics was largely unchanged from 2012. Race discrimination constituted 33.7% of claims, followed by sex discrimination at 30.5%, ADA claims at 26.5% and age discrimination at 23% (the numbers add up to more than 100% due to multiple bases cited in many charges). Retaliation was alleged in 38.1% of all charges filed, up considerably from a decade ago. The EEOC reported only 280 charges alleging violation of the new Genetic Information Discrimination Act.

These numbers show a stabilization of the volume of EEOC filings after a substantial increase that followed the 2008 recession and large accompanying job losses.