Withdrawing government support for District-based Fannie Mae and McLean-based Freddie Mac could have massive effects for minority financial professionals in the Washington region.

Both the mortgage finance giants are not only the two of the largest employers in the area, with a total of ten thousand workers, but also many of those positions are held by people of color.

If the government-sponsored entities (GSE) gats eliminated, as the Obama administration is proposing, that may leave thousands of these professionals seeking for a job. .

The private financial industry has not been this much open to minorities like the GSEs stated the director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, Anthony P. Carnevale. He further stated that he has no idea why one would expect that the private sector will hire as aggressively, first of all locally and second of all in the minority community, as Fannie and Freddie have.

The mortgage twins are widely reckoned as progressive in their hiring practices, routinely recognized by publications like Black Enterprise and Working Mother for efforts to recruit and retain ethnic minorities and women. Both entities have especially been praised for their sustained commitment to these practices throughout the economic crisis.

Undoubtedly, in spite of several rounds of layoffs at the firms seen in the past few years, they have maintained diverse staffs. At the close of last year, nearly fifty percent of Fannie's employees and forty four percent of those at Freddie were minorities.

They have made employee reductions in several areas, but they have also increased in others. As such, the total employee figure has remained almost intact throughout conservator ship, started Douglas Duvall, a spokesman for Freddie Mac. They are constantly assessing their business to ensure that their personnel and resources match the needs of the marketplace.