Facebook makes little progress in race, gender diversity

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seen on stage during a town hall at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California September 27, 2015.

Reuters/Stephen Lam/File Photo

Facebook Inc (FB.O) said about a third of its workers are females, while black employees accounted for 3 percent of its U.S. senior leadership, both numbers only slightly higher than a year earlier.

The data released by the world’s largest social network on Thursday reflects the scant progress made by Silicon Valley heavyweights in making their workplaces more diverse in the face of criticism for having mostly white, male workers.

Last month, Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google released data on diversity, saying it had more black, Latino and female employees but still lagged its goal of mirroring the population.

Women represented 33 percent of Facebook’s global workforce, according to data from June 30, compared with 32 percent a year earlier. Women held 27 percent of senior leadership roles, up from last year’s 23 percent. (bit.ly/29Vvr9W)

Facebook said 3 percent of its senior leadership in the United States was black, up from 2 percent a year earlier.

Latino and black workers made up 4 percent and 2 percent of Facebook’s U.S. workforce, unchanged from last year.

Asians represented 38 percent of Facebook’s U.S. workforce and 21 percent of its senior leadership.

The majority of Facebook’s global tech employees, at 83 percent, are men, down marginally from last year’s 84 percent.

(Reporting by Sai Sachin R in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)