The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission handled almost 100,000 discrimination cases  — a new record — in Fiscal 2011. And it also managed to achieve a 10% decrease in its “pending charge inventory” — the backlog of cases waiting for resolution.

Frankly, we’re not sure whether this is good news for employers or not.

The EEOC received a record 99,947 charges of discrimination in fiscal year 2011, which ended Sept. 30.

The agency also garnered $364.6 million in monetary benefits for victims of workplace discrimination — the biggest total in the agency’s 46-year history.

The fiscal year ended with 78,136 pending charges—a decrease of 8,202 charges, or ten percent. In previous years, the pending inventory had increased as staffing declined 30% between fiscal years 2000 and 2008.

At the end of the fiscal year, there were 580 systemic investigations involving more than 2,000 charges under way.  EEOC field legal units filed 261 lawsuits — 23 of which involved systemic allegations affecting large numbers of people; 61 had multiple victims (less than 20); and 177 were individual lawsuits.

The EEOC’s private sector national mediation program obtained more than $170 million in monetary benefits for complainants, another record, and secured the highest number of resolutions in the history of the program—9,831.

This is five percent more than the number of resolutions reported in fiscal year 2010.

For a closer look at the EEOC numbers for this year, check out the agency’s Performance and Accountability Report.

Tags: eeoc, equal employment opportunity commission, fiscal year 2011, investigations