Diverse Workforce in Services

A study released by Forbes Insights, “Diversity & Inclusion: Unlocking Global Potential—Global Diversity Rankings by Country, Sector and Occupation,” ranks and measures diversity of workforces. Gender and age in particular determined the rankings of diversity by industry sector.

The Forbes Insights study measured diversity by gender, age and geography. The only countries to track employment by ethnicity are the U.S. and the U.K., where the hotel and catering sector ranked #1 in ethnic diversity.

The fastest-growing sector in terms of number of people employed is services, reflecting the global economy’s shift to a service-based economy. However, the labor force is strongly differentiated by gender. Health, education and hotels (the top three overall) have the highest rates of female employment, while more manual labor-intensive sectors have lower female employment rates. Mining and construction have the lowest proportion of women employees.

Agriculture has the most diverse workforce when it comes to age distribution, most likely because family-run farms continue to be common. The least age-diverse sectors are utilities and mining.

Again, not surprisingly, agriculture ranks the lowest in geographic distribution, being concentrated mainly in developing economies in Asia. In the age of technological globalization, business services, health, financial services and transport all rank high in the geographic aspect.

The one thing missing, perhaps rather significantly, is that the diversity rankings account for the numbers of various minority groups in each sector but do not take their job positions into account. There may be many women or ethnic minorities in the hotel and catering sector, for instance, but they are likely in lower-ranking jobs such as maids or bellhops. These rankings, therefore, may only account for numbers overall, but not necessarily the influence women or minorities wield in particular sectors. For all we know, women may hold high-level positions in a sector that does not have many female employees overall.

Top 5 sectors are