ALBANY - Governor David Paterson Thursday announced the creation of a taskforce that will devise a strategy for revitalizing New York State’s effort to diversify its workforce and ensure a fair share of state contracts go to businesses owned by minorities and women.

The creation of the task force follows the release of the Department of Civil Service diversity report, which showed some discrepancies in minority representation between the state workforce and the overall statewide labor force.

The diversity report looks at the representation of women and minorities in the State workforce by comparing each group as a proportion of the state workforce in 1998 to 2008. The report found that some groups are underrepresented in the state workforce, including Hispanics, who make up 4.4 percent of the state workforce but nearly 13 percent of the overall statewide labor force. Persons with disabilities make up 3.5 percent of state workers but 10.9 percent of all workers.

The report finds the proportion of women and African Americans in the state workforce are approximately equal to their proportions in the overall statewide labor force.

“These findings are unacceptable. Government should be a model of inclusion, but a model that has some groups faring well while others do not is really no model at all. New York can do better. And we will do better,” said Governor Paterson. “I am appointing a taskforce to consider the Civil Service report. My charge to them is to create a diversity management program that covers all of New York State government.”