Apple has released a diversity report covering the sex and race of its employees around the globe. Typical for the tech industry, a majority of Apple’s workforce is male, the U.S. workforce is largely white, and only 3 of 10 Apple employees around the world are female.
Broken down, males compose 65 percent of non-tech workers, 80 percent of tech workers, and 72 percent of Apple’s leadership.
As far as workers in the U.S. goes, the Cupertino firm shows workers as 55% white, 15% Asian, 11% Hispanic, and 7% Black. Nine percent of workers did not state their ethnicity, one percent selected “Other”, and two percent listed more than one race.
CEO Tim Cook notes that he is not happy with Apple’s stats, and says Apple is working to improve them.
Apple is committed to transparency, which is why we are publishing statistics about the race and gender makeup of our company. Let me say up front: As CEO, I’m not satisfied with the numbers on this page. They’re not new to us, and we’ve been working hard for quite some time to improve them. We are making progress, and we’re committed to being as innovative in advancing diversity as we are in developing our products.
Cook has taken steps to improve Apple’s diversity, having hired former Burberry CEO Angel Ahrendts as head of retail, adding Susan Wagner to the company’s board of directors, (she joins the previously sole female member of the board, Andrea Jung), making Lisa Jackson overseer of the company’s environmental efforts, and promoting Denise Young Smith to head of Human Resources.
Apple also says in its report that its diversity efforts go beyond race and gender, noting its involvement in the Human Right Campaign, and its support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which lobbied to cover gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people under existing United States nondiscrimination laws.
