Workplace diversity: Apple employs far more blacks, Hispanics than its tech rivals [View all]

[CreekDog]

If your workforce is almost all white in an area that is demographically far different, it means that you aren't picking the best candidates
because it means being white is one of the "qualifications" (unstated and often unintentional too) that helps people get hired. And
having a whiter workforce does nothing to make your products better.

Workplace diversity: Apple employs far more blacks, Hispanics than its tech rivals

By Julia Love and Patrick May

Posted: 08/13/2014 10:17:40 AM PDT

CUPERTINO -- Apple's workforce may be 70 percent male and 55 percent white, but the company still managed Tuesday to hand in one of the most impressive diversity score cards in Silicon Valley.

In revealing for the first time the demographic breakdown of its workforce, Apple reported that 18 percent of its employees are black and Hispanic, which compares to 5 percent for Google and Twitter and 6 percent for Facebook and Yahoo. The release of the report, following similar actions by major Silicon Valley companies, comes amid a heightened focus on the nature of the people who power the valley.

Apple was one of the last major tech companies to respond to advocates' calls for information as debate rages in Silicon Valley and beyond about the diversity of the tech workforce. The Mercury News began pushing for such information from major tech companies in 2008, but most resisted disclosure. Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose Rainbow PUSH Coalition began prodding tech companies to open up about their ranks earlier this year, gave Apple above-average marks for diversity, though he sees ample room for improvement.

In a letter accompanying the report, Apple CEO Tim Cook agreed that the company must do better.

"Let me say up front: As CEO, I'm not satisfied with the numbers on this page," he wrote. "We're making progress, and we are committed to being as innovative in advancing diversity as we are in developing our products."