Decoding Training Needs: Exploring Demographic Data to Understand Retail Food Regulatory Workforce Composition and Inform Capacity Building

Understanding workforce demographics is important to ensure equitable recruitment, training, and retention. Previous studies have reported demographics of the environmental public health workforce; however, demographic data on professionals who conduct retail food regulatory duties are lacking. We conducted a workforce training needs assessment that examined demographic frequencies and associations between demographic factors and job levels. Findings indicate an educated workforce, and a high percentage of respondents self-reported that they were >40 years, White, and female. We also found, however, that female respondents were significantly less likely than male respondents to hold leadership positions, even when accounting for age, years of experience, and education. Our study also shows an underrepresentation of retail food regulatory professionals from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Future training should account for the need to fill experience gaps in the field when current employees retire. Additionally, there is a need to increase the recruitment of diverse professionals while supporting equitable retention and advancement in the field. Keywords: diversity, environmental public health, equity, leadership, retail food, workforce development
Introduction Environmental public health (EPH) professionals are responsible for ensuring that people are safe from environmental hazards such as disease vectors, potential contaminants in food and water, and exposure to [...]