Workforce Diversity in Federal Natural Resource Organizations

Abstract

Natural resource management in the United States has long suffered from a lack of workforce diversity, with women and minorities generally underrepresented in natural resource careers. Workforce diversity is particularly important for federal natural resource organizations given their importance as major environmental employers and policymakers as well as their legal obligation to ensure a representative federal workforce. This analysis examined workforce trends in gender (from 1998 to 2018) and race/ethnicity (from 2006 to 2018) for nine federal natural resource departments and agencies. Employee demographic data were examined intraorganizationally over time and inter-organizationally in comparison with the federal government overall and the civilian labor force. The results demonstrated that over the last two decades: (1) federal natural resource organizations experienced large losses of employees, in contrast to gains in the number of employees in the federal government overall and the civilian labor force; (2) the percentage of female and minority employees in federal natural resource organizations increased even as the number of employees decreased; (3) federal natural resource organizations had lower percentages of female and minority employees than the federal government overall and civilian labor force; and (4) gaps in female and minority employment between the federal natural resource organizations and the civilian labor force generally remained stable or grew larger over time. Overall, the results indicate that federal natural resource organizations have continued to experience remedial levels of workforce diversity compared to the federal government overall and the civilian labor force.