This installment of DCI’s exploration of diversity benchmarks focuses on the diversity profile within the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services sector and their overall labor force demographic employment rates. The Professional, Scientific and Technical Services sector covers nine industry groups in the NAICS hierarchical structure.¹

In our prior installments we first reviewed the average participation rates of women and employees of color across industries overall and followed that by exploring the diversity profile in the Finance & Insurance sector specifically. We used the 2-digit NAICS code level in the EEO 2014-2018 EEO Tabulation² released by the United States Census Bureau to identify industry.

The chart below compares the representation in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services sector to the representation in the overall labor force. This chart presents the results in a standardized way by setting the representation in the general labor force to 100%. As an example of how to interpret these comparisons, a ratio of 55% Black men in the chart below indicates that the percentage of a demographic group (in this case Black men) employed in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services sector is 55% of the average Black employee representation in the general labor force. The results are ordered from highest to lowest ratio. DCI is only reporting on groups where representation is greater than 2%.

Asian and White men and women, and Asian and White employees overall in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services sector exceed the percent in the general labor force. Indeed, Asian men and Asian employment overall far exceed their representation in the general labor force (i.e., 225% and 183% respectively). However, Black and Hispanic men and women, and Black and Hispanic employment overall fall short of the percent representation in the general labor force. The low percentage of Black and Hispanic women (i.e., 47% and 58% respectively) is a contributing factor to why women representation overall (i.e., 91%) is below the average percent in the general labor force.

Using the 80% benchmark to identify practical under-representation,³ Black and Hispanic employment overall, as well as Black and Hispanic men and women independently, are underutilized in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services sector.

The diversity gap challenge in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services sector is clear; employers in this sector need to focus on attracting, recruiting, and retaining more Hispanic and Black employees in their workforce. Employers in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services sector can use the newly available benchmark data to evaluate how they compare to others in their industries as an initial comparison. Of course, the chart above does not account for differences in specific jobs in this sector or how those jobs compare to the general labor force. For a deeper dive on your specific workforce demographics, as well the development of other diversity metrics, we invite you to contact DCI.