Yahoo shared some basic demographic information Tuesday on its workforce, the latest Silicon Valley company to reveal the stark lack of diversity in its ranks.
For years, technology companies have resisted reporting this information even though they collect it and report it to the federal government.
But Google late last month swung open the door by revealing the gender and racial breakdown of its workforce, bringing to the forefront an issue that Silicon Valley has long wanted to keep hidden from public view: that these workforces are predominantly white and male.
Google made the move after the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. stood up at its annual shareholder meeting to urge Google to disclose its numbers. He made a similar plea at the Facebook shareholder meeting. But the giant social network where Sheryl Sandberg is the No. 2 executive, said it preferred to share the data internally first.
Yahoo, which is also run by a woman and another former Google executive, Marissa Mayer, said 50 percent of its workforce of more than 12,000 is white, 39 percent Asian, 4 percent Hispanic, 2 percent black and 4 percent undisclosed or more than one race.
Asians comprise 57 percent of Yahoo’s tech workers while 35 percent of tech workers are white. About 37 percent of Yahoo workers are women and 23 percent of senior managers are women.
Last week, LinkedIn also disclosed its diversity figures, which were very similar to those released by Google and Yahoo. But LinkedIn also released the demographic report it provides to the federal government.
Only Intel, Cisco and a smattering of other companies routinely disclose their demographic reports to the federal government.
source: usatoday.com
