After years of resisting calls for more transparency about the diversity of its workforce, Google has released data revealing that the tech giant is mostly staffed by white males.
According to the data, released Wednesday for the first time, 70 percent of the Google workforce is male and 61 percent of its workers are white. And while Asian-Americans make up 30 percent of the workforce, African-Americans and Hispanics make up two and three percent, respectively.
In a statement on the company blog, Google said that it considers racial and gender imbalance to be a problem, and speculates about the underlying causes.
Citing stats from a 2012 National Science Foundation report, Google says that recruitment of people of color and women is difficult because, “Blacks and Hispanics make up under 10 percent of U.S. college grads and collect fewer than 5 percent of degrees in CS majors” and because that only 18 percent of the computer science degrees awarded in the U.S. go to women.
Google says it has invested millions of dollars in organizations that work to bring women and girls into computer science education.
“But we’re the first to admit that Google is miles from where we want to be,” the statement continued. “Being totally clear about the extent of the problem is a really important part of the solution.”
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