Apple’s Hiring Practices Aren’t Matching Up with Its Diversity Goals

August 13, 2015, 6:33pm

It’s that time again: tech companies release their employee diversity reports and tech writers get to pore over it and sound the clarion call for, yes, more diversity! It’s good for business, as common wisdom and rigorous academics show. Apple just released their latest diversity report. Where are they running short?

pretty well

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of the US population

And that’s just for general employees. The problem resurfaces when you get into the tech and leadership roles.

We’re not going to list the rest of the companies because at this point we’re picking out minute differences, but the bottom line is this: women are still outnumbered 4 to 1 in tech roles, and blacks and Latinos are still highly underrepresented in tech and leadership roles.

And the problem of underrepresentation surfaces in very ugly ways: prospective minority workers may see that they’re not being represented in the field they’re going in. Apple had a lot to say to their own credit, and they are doing something to help the next generation of tech workers.

But the grandiose changes they promise won’t happen at the drop of a hat, especially when the rest of the industry seems set in its ways, as far as the numbers go year by year.