Report finds racial gap widening in Silicon Valley

By Barry Eitel

SAN FRANCISCO (AA) – A report released Tuesday by a non-profit organization found the percentage of minorities hired by Silicon Valley firms had declined in the past few years.

The report was authored by the Ascend Foundation, an advocate group for Asian Americans in the workforce. It comes amid pledges from many tech companies to improve diversity in the workforce.

Ascend analyzed public data from tech companies headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area collected between 2007 and 2015. The government requires all companies with staffs larger than 100 to provide data on the race and gender makeup of their workforce, so the data includes information provided by companies like Apple, Alphabet, Facebook and Cisco.

The researchers found that race has become much more of an issue than gender in recent years, especially when it comes to climbing the corporate ladder to a management position.

Representation of white women in executive roles increased 17 percent between 2007 and 2015, the study found, but the percentage actually declined for all other minority groups.

"In spite of companies investing in their recruiting and hiring of Asians, Blacks and Hispanics, advancement to senior corporate ranks and corporate boards is still highly limited," said Anna Mok, executive vice president of Ascend, in a statement.

"To make the systemic changes that positively impact and advance results, CEOs, their executive teams and corporate boards need to actively lead change and drive solutions."

Even though Asians make up the largest racial group besides whites employed in tech, Asians are least likely to be promoted to executive positions. The small percentage of blacks and Hispanics in the tech workforce has actually declined overall since 2007.

"We saw progress made by white women, so we know tech companies can change,” said study co-author Buck Gee in a statement. “Now it's time to do the same for minority men and women."