Like many other tech companies, Facebook does not boast an especially diverse workforce. The social network revealed the demographic makeup of its staff for the first time Wednesday, following similar disclosures from competitors such as Google and Yahoo. Facebook’s global workforce is currently 69% male and 31% female. While 57% of the company’s employees in the U.S. are white, another 34% are Asian, 4% are Hispanic, 3% are multi-racial and 2% are black.
On the tech side of the company, the numbers are more skewed, with 85% of workers being male and 94% being white or Asian. There’s more parity gender-wise among non-tech jobs, where 53% or workers are male and 47% are female.
Men are also dominant in senior level positions, comprising 77% of the workforce compared to women’s 23%. 74% of top-level employees are white, while 19% are Asian. Just 6% are black, Hispanic, or multiracial.
Facebook acknowledged in a blog post that it has a long way to go to build a diverse workforce. “Diversity is something that we’re treating as everyone’s responsibility at Facebook, and the challenge of finding qualified but underrepresented candidates is one that we’re addressing as part of a strategic effort across Facebook,” the company said.
The social network mentioned several initiatives to improve its diversity, including: launching a strategic diversity team; expanding Facebook University, an internship program aimed at college students from underrepresented groups; and partnering with training programs such as Girls Who Code, Code 2040 and national groups for black and Hispanic engineers.
Facebook’s diversity figures are about in line with data released by its peers. Google’s staff is 30% female and 9% black, Hispanic or multiracial, while Yahoo’s is 37% female and 8% black, Hispanic or multiracial. For all the companies mentioned, gender data is for all employees worldwide while ethnic data is for workers in the U.S. only.
