Google's US workforce now more Asian, and less white and male

Southfield, Michigan

GOOGLE'S workforce employed fewer white, male employees as the already over-represented Asian workforce grew and women and people of colour showed less obvious improvement.

Gains were reported in the number of women, black and Latino workers among new hires while attrition rates for women and most under-represented groups declined, the Alphabet Inc unit said in its annual diversity report. Still, black workers continued to have the highest attrition rates, according to the report, which cited race data for US employees.

White workers remain in the majority, accounting for 54.4 per cent of employees, while Asian staff posted the biggest increase by rising 1.7 percentage points to 39.8 per cent at Google. In the US, Asians make up 6 per cent of the population.

Earlier this year, Google employees, along with shareholders, called on the company to make changes in areas including racial and gender diversity, and asked the board to consider tying these metrics to executive bonuses. Over the past year, employees have protested about worker rights, a military contract and the handling of sexual misconduct allegations.

The report showed that women gained ground in technical jobs, although they still account for less than a quarter of those roles globally compared with almost half of non-technical positions. The number of women rose to 26 per cent of US leadership, from 25.3 per cent in 2018.

For the first time, the company also asked workers to self-identify among several other under-represented groups. Google found that 8.5 per cent identify as LGBTQ, 7.5 per cent identified as having a disability, and less than one per cent identified as non-binary. BLOOMBERG