Google had its "best year yet" for hiring Black and Latinx employees in the U.S. as well as women globally, according to its 2022 Diversity Annual Report. The hiring rate increased for Black, Latinx, Native American and female employees, although these identities are still very underrepresented compared to white and male employees.
The number of Black employees increased from 4.4% in 2021 to a little over 5% in 2022, while Latinx employees increased from 6.4% to 6.9%. White employees still make up almost half of the workforce, and Asian employees make up around 43%. Native American employees make up less than 1%. Men make up two-thirds of the company's workforce nationally and globally. Attrition rates went down among almost every demographic compared to 2021, with the exception of growing attrition among Asian employees and Native American men.
Former Black Google employees have accused the company of racism in recent years, leading to an investigation from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. April Curley, a former recruiter, is suing Google for allegedly underpaying and undervaluing its Black employees. Timnit Gebru, a prominent AI research ethicist, was fired by the company in 2020 after she refused to remove her name from a research paper and wrote an internal note about her concerns with Google's diversity efforts.
Protocol's diversity tracker displays diversity data across Big Tech, allowing you to look at companies' efforts side by side.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the percentage of Black employees at Google in 2021. This story was updated on May 20, 2022.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE