Facebook makes little progress in race and gender diversity

Facebook has said about one-third of its workers are female, while black employees accounted for 3% of its US senior leadership, both numbers only slightly higher than a year earlier.

The data released by the world’s largest social network on Thursday reflects the scant progress made by Silicon Valley heavyweights in making their workplaces more diverse in the face of criticism for having mostly white, male workers.

Last month, Alphabet’s Google released data on diversity, saying it had more black, Latino and female employees but still lagged its goal of mirroring the population.

Women represented 33% of Facebook’s global workforce, according to data from 30 June, compared with 32% a year earlier. Women held 27% of senior leadership roles, up from last year’s 23%.

Facebook said 3% of its senior leadership in the United States was black, up from 2% a year earlier.

Latino and black workers made up 4% and 2% of Facebook’s US workforce, unchanged from last year.

Asians represented 38% of Facebook’s US workforce and 21% of its senior leadership.

The majority of Facebook’s global tech employees, at 83%, are men, down marginally from last year’s 84%.

(REUTERS)