Google's workforce diversity little changed in past year

[SAN FRANCISCO] Google Inc made little progress in its efforts to diversify its workforce in the past year, even as the company increased hiring of women and minorities.

Women made up 30 per cent of Google's workforce as of January, the same percentage from the previous year, according to data released Monday by the search giant. Google said 21 per cent of the people hired for technical jobs in 2014 were female, meaning the total number of women in the employment category rose 1 per cent.

Whites and Asians made up 91 per cent of the employee base, the same as last year, Google said. Blacks and Hispanics make up about 5 per cent of the total.

"We're encouraged that this important issue is now being discussed openly," the Mountain View, California-based company said in a posting. "Though we still have a long way to go, we're seeing some early progress."

Google last year was the first technology company to report its ethnic and gender makeup, preceded similar announcements from others, including Apple Inc, Facebook Inc and Microsoft Corp. The research has added fuel to the discussion that women and minorities are underrepresented in the industry by showing that the companies are predominantly male and mostly white and Asian.

BLOOMBERG