Intelligence Community Workforce Report Reflects Talent Pipeline Improvements, Retention Challenges

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released its latest report on diversity in the 18 agencies that make up the intelligence community (IC). 

This report reviewed data on the employment of minorities, persons with disabilities, and women in the intelligence community at the end of fiscal year (FY) 2023. It also reviewed the effectiveness of advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) efforts and tried to identify areas of progress and improvement. 

“The information and analysis contained in this report allows the workforce, the Congress, and the public to hold us – the IC's leadership – accountable for advancing a community that better reflects our country's great diversity,” said Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. “Our people are our greatest asset, and this report is a crucial tool for assessing the readiness of the IC workforce to tackle the challenges of our complex world.”

Report Details

The report contains some good news and bad news when it comes to employing a diverse workforce.

Overall, the IC continues to lag in employing minorities, women, and people with disabilities, as compared with the broader federal government and the U.S. civilian labor force.

The share of minorities in the IC workforce was greater in 2020 (27 percent) than it is today (26.7 percent).

However, the share of minorities applying for IC jobs is higher, although many of the applicants were ultimately not hired. Minorities accounted for nearly 40 percent of applicants, including 16.5 percent of those who are African Americans.

An area of concern is attrition. Attrition for minority officers was largely in line with the overall workforce at 26.2 percent, but African American officers represented half of that attrition.

It’s particularly a concern in the first year on the job, as minority officers accounted for over 32 percent of those leaving after less than a year.

In addition, minority officers continue to face barriers in promotions to higher grade levels and remain particularly underrepresented at more senior grade levels.

Women in the IC

As for women, the report found that “Women continue to be underrepresented in the overall workforce, even as their representation is improving incrementally in the last few years.”

Women currently make up about 41 percent of the IC workforce. However, just 34 percent of women are in senior leadership roles. Women are also applying to the IC at a lower rate than for other federal jobs.

A bright spot is that women as new hires outpaced attrition levels by five points.

Meantime, the number of IC workers with disabilities also declined slightly between FY 2020 and FY 2023, landing at 9.8 percent.

ODNI is required by law to produce the annual report and submit it to Congress.