Learn about the types of people who become garbage collectors. This page goes into detail about the employment, gender, and ethnic ratios of the workplace.
Gender Mix By Career Interest, 2024
This graph shows the distribution of females and males that are interested in becoming a garbage collector. Four or five star ratings on CareerExplorer indicate interest.
More men than women are interested in becoming garbage collectors at a ratio of 3.37 to 1.
Actual Gender Mix, 2024
13% of garbage collectors are female and 87% are male.
Gender Bias, 2024
This is one of the most compelling statistics we collect. Gender bias shows the difference between gender interest in being a garbage collector and the actual gender mix of people in the career.
If there is a significant difference, then it means there is a gender imbalance between those interested in becoming a garbage collector and those who end up becoming one.
In this case there are more women interested in becoming a garbage collector than those actually working as one. It is hard to pinpoint the exact reasons why, but there are likely various forces at play, from changing interests over time to societal norms and biases.
Ethnic Mix, 2019
The largest ethnic group of garbage collectors are White, making up 76% of the population. The next highest segments are Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish and Black or African American, making up 10% and 4% respectively.