Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), on Wednesday, released its workforce diversity statistics for the first time, in response to mounting pressure on the technology industry to hire greater minorities and women. The search engine giant has filed the information as a part of the report that every major U.S. employer must file with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. However, this information is not required to be publicly released.
Google making efforts to ensure diversity
According to the data, around 70% of the people working in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) are men, and 61% of total workforce is white. In a blog, Laszlo Bock, senior vice president at Google, said that the company is not where it wants to be “when it comes to diversity.”
Of the total workforce in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG ) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), 30% are Asians, 3% Hispanics and 2% black. The remaining 5% of the workforce is listed as two or more races or other.
Bock said that the efforts of Google to diversify the workforce expand beyond its offices to the broader tech sector. He said that since 2010 the company has given more than $40 million to organizations providing computer education to women and girls.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG ) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is also partnering with black colleges and universities to increase the coursework and attendance in computer science. “But we’re the first to admit that Google is miles from where we want to be, and that being totally clear about the extent of the problem is a really important part of the solution,” he said.
Wide disparities in Silicon Valley
Gender and ethnic disparities still clearly exist, in Silicon Valley, as well as on a national level, as only 7% of tech workers are black or Latino. Black and Hispanics are 13.1% and 16.9% of the U.S. population, respectively, according to the recent census data.
Rev. Jesse Jackson has been behind a campaign to diversify the workforce in Silicon Valley by asking companies to add more blacks and Hispanics to workforce. He has also headed delegations to annual shareholder’s meetings at firms including Google, Facebook, eBay and Hewlett-Packard.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has pioneered the disclosure. And, recently, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said that this sort of disclosure is important, but the website needs to share information internally prior to disclosing it in public. Other tech giants like Apple, Twitter, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft are still to reveal their plans to disclose data.
