Google’s Diversity Efforts Still Have a Long Way to Go

Google’s latest diversity statistics reveal the company is making steady but slow progress towards its goal of a more inclusive workplace, though white males still account for the overwhelming majority of its employees.

Google says that 69% percent of its employees are now male, while 31% are female. That marks a small increase from the 70% to 30% ratio the company reported last year. But only 19% of Google’s technical roles are held by women, while 81% of them are held by men. That’s also a 1% increase compared to last year.

Google has progressed slightly further when it comes to leadership roles: Women hold 24% of leadership positions in the company, up from 22%.

The company has made similar progress when it comes to ethnicity. 59% of Google employees are white, while 32% are Asian, 3% are Hispanic, and 2% are black. 70% percent of Google leadership roles and 57% of tech positions are held by white employees.

In a blog post, the search giant emphasized its efforts to hire more diverse employees, saying that the percentage of new hires that were black, Hispanic, and female in 2015 was actually higher than the company’s current demographic representation for these groups. For example, 4% of Google’s new hires last year were black, while only 2% of Google’s total workforce is black.

Last year, Google said it would spend $150 million in 2015 to promote diversity.

Creating a diverse workforce has been a challenge for many major tech companies, including Apple, Facebook, and Yahoo, who have all reported similar gender and ethnic imbalances in the past.

Google first began sharing its diversity statistics in 2014, triggering other Silicon Valley giants to do the same.

Tech corporations and startups have been vocal about closing the gap when it comes to diversity. 32 tech companies, including Airbnb, Spotify, Intel, Pinterest, and Lyft, have signed a pledge to make their workforce more representative and diverse.