Contributors: Jamar Cagle, Alex Jordan, Ayesha Upshur
Editor: Kyle DeMaria
Email Trendlines at: ETA-Trendlines@dol.gov
Representation in Registered Apprenticeship
The U.S. DOL Office of Apprenticeship (OA) recently published a new interactive tool — the Apprentice Population Dashboard (APD) — that provides a look at the representation of demographic groups in Registered Apprenticeship (RA). The dashboard compares the representation of groups in RA with their corresponding representation in the U.S. workforce. The result is an index value that provides workforce practitioners with the insights needed to grow RA participation among under-represented groups. The dashboard includes information on representation along several dimensions: sex, race, ethnicity, age, veteran status, and disability status. In addition, users can select data for their state or county.
Visit the Data and Statistics page on Apprenticeship.gov.
A Primer on the APD Index
The APD leverages data on active apprentices from the Registered Apprenticeship Partners Information Database System (RAPIDS) and data on the composition of the U.S. workforce from the Census’ American Community Survey. We calculated the index by comparing the proportion of each group in RA to that group’s proportion of the workforce; the workforce estimates were contained to the locations in which RA programs were located. For example, Asian workers made up about 1.9% of all active apprentices, nationwide. However, Asian workers represented about 6.1% of the U.S. workforce residing in locations near RA programs. After dividing 1.9% by 6.1% and multiplying by 100, we obtained an index of 31.
An index value under 100 indicates that the demographic group is under-represented in Registered Apprenticeship relative to their representation in the workforce. In contrast, an index value over 100 indicates that a group’s representation in Registered Apprenticeship surpasses their representation in the workforce. The former is an indication that additional efforts are integral for the continued promotion of under-represented apprentices in both traditional and emerging industries within Registered Apprenticeship.
The Apprentice Population Dashboard 
Sources: analysis of Registered Apprenticeship Partners Information Database System (RAPIDS) data (2022) and American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates (2016–2020)
Women and Youth in Registered Apprenticeship
The APD shows contrasting stories for the representation of women and youth — aged 16 to 24 — in RA. Youth were strongly represented in RA, however, women remained under-represented. Whereas only 13% of the total workforce consisted of youth aged 16 to 24, youth made up a tremendous 41% of the apprentice population. In contrast, while almost half of the population in RA program locations were female (43%), women only accounted for 13% of apprentices.
Proportion of women and youth in RA and the workforce 
Sources: analysis of RAPIDS data (2022) and ACS 5-year estimates (2016–2020)
Looking Ahead
Future iterations of this dashboard will present an opportunity to address current limitations:
- Comparisons are subject to availability of ACS and RAPIDS data.
- The dashboard is based on RA program locations as opposed to apprentices’ home locations.
- Localities with few apprenticeship participants are suppressed to protect participant identities.
- Census data include people aged 20 to 64, whereas RAPIDS data include participants as young as 16 years old.
- RA records identified as having inaccurate or missing demographic or geolocation data were excluded from this analysis.
Labor Market Metrics
