Yahoo made its statistics on workforce diversity public on Tuesday. Like other Silicon Valley companies that have lately published their own data, the organization is mostly male and either white or Asian.
Yahoo's employees are 62 percent male and 37 percent female, with 1 percent identifying as other or declining to disclose the information. In technical positions, however, men make up 85 percent of the workforce. Women are largely found in non-technical positions, where they make up 52 percent of employees. In leadership positions males also dominate, occupying 77 percent of positions.
Based on the data, 50 percent of Yahoo's employees are white, followed by Asians with 39 percent. Hispanic employees make up 4 percent of the workforce, with black employees occupying 2 percent. Also at 2 percent are mixed race workers and employees of other or undisclosed races. In technical positions, Asians actually make up the majority of the workforce at 57 percent. However, whites occupy 78 percent of leadership positions. Non-technical positions contain 63 percent white workers, with Hispanics making a larger appearance at 6 percent.
"These statistics are only a part of the story," says Yahoo in a statement. "Yahoo works to ensure that our existing employees feel welcome and supported during their time at the company. We have a wide range of Employee Resource Groups that serve people of diverse backgrounds and are highly engaged in their respective communities."
Yahoo also pointed out that the company received a score of 100% on the Corporate Equality index, and was named among the best places to work for LGBT equality. Yahoo's disclosure if this data was prompted by Google releasing its own diversity statistics in May at the request of activist groups. At Google, men fill 70 percent of all jobs. Whites make up 61 percent of the workforce, followed by Asians at 30 percent; 4 percent of employees and mixed race, while black and Hispanic workers make up 2 and 3 percent of the company, respectively.
LinkedIn also released data on the diversity of its workforce, and appears to be doing a bit better than Yahoo and Google when it comes to hiring women. Female employees occupy 39 percent of jobs at the company. Like the others, LinkedIn is mostly white and Asians, with white employees at 53 percent and Asians at 38 percent. LinkedIn was quick to detail the many programs it has in place to promote diversity in the workforce.
The real problem it seems may not be with the hiring programs of Silicon Valley companies, but with the education system. Only 18 percent of computer science degrees are earned by women, making LinkedIn's 39 percent female employees seem impressive by comparison. However, blacks and Hispanics earn 8 and 6 percent of computer science major, respectively. This calls into question why these companies are made up of only about 2 percent black employees despite affirmative action programs.
