In top tech companies are full of white guys news, Facebook has jumped onboard the bandwagon and for the first time, made its diversity figures public.
For the most part, Facebook’s gender and ethnic makeup falls in line with that of other companies who have recently revealed their numbers – Yahoo, Google, and LinkedIn.
Facebook’s global makeup in 69 percent male and 31 percent female. By comparison, Yahoo, Google, and LinkedIn are 62 percent, 70 percent, and 61 percent male, respectively.
In terms of ethnicity, Facebook is 57 percent white, 34 percent Asian, 4 percent hispanic, and 2 percent black.
“As these numbers show, we have more work to do – a lot more. But the good news is that we’ve begun to make progress,” says Maxine Williams, Facebook’s Global Head of Diversity. “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. Since our strategic diversity team launched last year, we’re already seeing improved new hire figures and lower attrition rates for underrepresented groups.”
As we pointed out with Yahoo’s diversity numbers, the trend swings more male and white as you approach the top. Facebook’s senior level employees are 77 percent male and 74 percent white.
“We have a long way to go, but we’re absolutely committed to achieving greater diversity at Facebook and across the industry,” says Williams.
With all this renewed focus on diversity in tech and as these reports continue to trickle out, it’ll be interesting to see if/how things have shifted by this time next year.
Image via Facebook
