I regard our diversity as a powerful tool that can help us meet the intelligence challenges of the coming century. That is why I have made advancing diversity within our Agency and Community an important part of my Strategic Direction planning. I am determined to increase the diversity of our workforce and to using the many talents of the men and women who are already with us to optimum advantage. The demographic trends are unmistakable. Projections indicate that over the next twenty years, women and people of color will constitute a growing majority of new entrants into the American labor market.
Diversity is already an imperative for the business community.
Corporate America was among the first to recognize that diversity pays dividends. Fortune 500 companies are out every day aggressively targeting women and minorities for recruitment. Their sophisticated recruiting ads prominently feature women, people with disabilities, and a range of races, ethnicities, and ages. The corporate slogans say it all. The ads aren't merely slick public relations tools, they are genuinely representative of a corporate population that is more diverse than ever before and growing more so every day.