A regulatory document submitted by Apple suggests that the company has made slight progress in workforce diversity.
The 2015 Employer Information Report, or Equal Employment Opportunity-1 (EEO-1) report, breaks down employee data by gender, race, job and more. The report represents data as of August 2015.
According to the EEO-1 report, Apple made some progress in increasing the diversity of its workforce in comparison to the previous year. The iPhone maker hired 1,475 African-Americans, 1,633 Hispanics and 1,662 Asians over a 13-month period. During the same period, Apple also hired 4,096 white people.
Apple released a diversity report and also launched a diversity webpage in August 2015, which shows a number of graphs and letter from Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple.
"Last year we reported the demographics of our employees for the first time externally, although we have long prioritized diversity. We promised to improve those numbers and we're happy to report that we have made progress," says Cook.
The CEO says that in the last year, the company hired more than 11,000 women across the globe, which is an increase of 65 percent when compared to the previous year. The company also hired over 2,200 Black employees in the U.S., which is an increase of 50 percent over the last year. Apple also recruited 2,700 Hispanic employees, an increase of 66 percent.
While Cook revealed that in the U.S. Apple hired over 2,200 Black employees, the EEO-1 reports reflects something different. However, Apple also explains that even though the company has released the employee document, it does not show the way how Apple measures its progress.
"The EEO-1 has not kept pace with changes in industry or the American workforce over the past half century. We believe the information we report elsewhere on this site is a far more accurate reflection of our progress toward diversity," says Apple.
In the U.S., around 30 percent of Apple's employees are women, which is a slight increase from 28.7 percent a year earlier. However, the number of women managers fell from 27.7 percent to 27.1 percent.
The report also shows that 59.5 percent of all employees in the U.S. are white, which is a decline from 61.3 percent a year earlier. Just over 17 percent of employees in Apple are Asians, a small increase as it was slightly over 16 percent a year earlier.
The EEO-1 report highlights that Apple is nearly at par with other Silicon Valley giants. About 30 percent of employees in Google and 32 percent in Facebook are women. The workforce at Microsoft comprises 26.8 percent women employees.
