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Following in the footsteps of several other major tech companies, Apple has released a diversity report on the sex and race of its employees (via Re/code). As is common in the tech industry, the majority of Apple's workforce is male -- only three out of 10 employees around the globe are female. Broken down, males compose 65 percent of non-tech workers, 80 percent of tech workers, and 72 percent of Apple's leadership.

In the United States, across tech, leadership, and non-tech, Apple's workers are 55 percent white, 15 percent Asian, 11 percent Hispanic, and 7 percent Black. Nine percent of workers declined to state their ethnicity, one percent selected other, and two percent listed more than one race.

applediversity.jpg
According to CEO Tim Cook, he is unhappy with Apple's diversity numbers and says Apple is working to improve them.
Apple is committed to transparency, which is why we are publishing statistics about the race and gender makeup of our company. Let me say up front: As CEO, I'm not satisfied with the numbers on this page. They're not new to us, and we've been working hard for quite some time to improve them. We are making progress, and we're committed to being as innovative in advancing diversity as we are in developing our products.
During his tenure as CEO, Cook has taken steps towards improving Apple's diversity by boosting Apple's female leadership. Cook hired Angela Ahrendts as the head of retail and Susan Wagner was recently added to Apple's board, joining existing female board member Andrea Jung. Cook has also overseen the hire of Lisa Jackson, who oversees the company's environmental affairs, and the promotion of Denise Young Smith to head of human resources. Apple is a sponsor of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, which aims to get women involved in technology.

In its report, Apple suggests that its company diversity beliefs go beyond race and gender, pointing to its involvement in the Human Rights Campaign. Under Cook, Apple has supported the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which lobbied to add lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals to the U.S.'s existing nondiscrimination law. Apple also recently participated in San Francisco's Gay Pride event and the company has long had protections for its LGBT employees.

Update 1:30 PM PT: Apple has posted the Diversity video from its Diversity page on YouTube.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Releases Employee Diversity Report, 7 out of 10 Workers Are Male, 55% White
 

Dulcimer

macrumors 6502a
Nov 20, 2012
892
689
Sorry, but I found the idea of purposely hiring minorities for the sake of "diversity" ridiculous. Hire the best person for the job, not the one who'll improve your diversity report numbers.
 

SAIRUS

macrumors 6502a
Aug 21, 2008
818
516
Sorry, but I found the idea of purposely hiring minorities for the sake of "diversity" ridiculous. Hire the best person for the job, not the one who'll improve your diversity report numbers.

I agree with this, but the work place needs to give a 100% opportunity regardless of sex and ethnicity. Hire the best.
 

cmChimera

macrumors 601
Feb 12, 2010
4,273
3,762
This is pretty good. I'm not sure of other corporate numbers, but this is impressively diverse. Good for Apple, and good that they want to keep improving.
 

Orlandoech

macrumors 68040
Jun 2, 2011
3,341
887
Sorry, but I found the idea of purposely hiring minorities for the sake of "diversity" ridiculous. Hire the best person for the job, not the one who'll improve your diversity report numbers.


This day in age, it's important to satisfy "everyone" with diversity, every one is so easily offended and hyper-sensitive that it's pathetic.
 

djtech42

macrumors 65816
Jun 23, 2012
1,447
56
Mason, OH
As long as a company isn't actively discriminating against certain minorities, they shouldn't have to worry about having certain numbers. People are people.
 

Exponent

macrumors 6502
Jul 17, 2002
262
634
Silicon Valley
Be colorblind, Apple!

As a white guy Silicon Valley Engineer who finds it harder and harder to find chip design jobs (thank God I'm in a good one right now), I really wish the Valley went back to the "we don't give a rat's @$$ what you look like, just be excellent and proactive at your job" model that used to prevail here.

What really needs to be looked at is the incredibly monolithic look most chip design teams have these days. They're not white, they're 90% Indian-Pakistani, with a smattering of Chinese people here and there. This in no way matches the output from engineering schools. H1B visa abuse by employers has truly changed the Silicon Valley landscape.
 
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Teste

macrumors 6502
Jan 8, 2011
353
5
It's silly to call for diversity when Tim Cook himself continues to hide his homossexuality. Is this the kind of example he wants to set at Apple? "Stay hidden and don't tell anyone about it"?
 

quagmire

macrumors 604
Apr 19, 2004
6,904
2,325
This day in age, it's important to satisfy "everyone" with diversity, every one is so easily offended and hyper-sensitive that it's pathetic.

And of course there are people who are hypersensitive to the hyper-sensitives and are offended over the other side being offended over the lack of diversity.

Which doesn't make them any better.... Just the other side of the very same coin....

Back to the point, hire the best people regardless of sex, race, sexual orientation, etc. That is the ideal anyway.
 

Mums

Suspended
Oct 4, 2011
667
559
I love it how MacRumors always censors my posts whenever they have anything to do with race, and then they post race-baiting articles like this.

And I suppose there's something wrong with a majority White employee base? Why not make an article about how Foxconn discriminates against non-Chinese.
 

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,778
10,844
Sorry, but I found the idea of purposely hiring minorities for the sake of "diversity" ridiculous. Hire the best person for the job, not the one who'll improve your diversity report numbers.

And who said that's the case? Take a place like NYC, which is the most diverse place in the world. If all the Apple stores combined in NYC had 95% white employment you would not see an obvious issue with that?

I think it's great that Apple is proud of the diversity in it's employees.
 

screensaver400

macrumors 6502a
Jan 28, 2005
858
46
At what point can we stop looking at people in terms of their race, and instead just view them as people? In five years? In ten? In fifty?

How about now?
 

Kaibelf

Suspended
Apr 29, 2009
2,445
7,444
Silicon Valley, CA
Heaven forbid the workforce actually reflects the demographic make up of the entire population.

That would mean the industry would have to, demographically, reflect the population. Sorry, but by and large girls and some minorities aren't introduced to computer science as a focal point of interest either by their family or the neighborhood culture.

Would you also complain about the lack of white hip-hop artists or straight LGBT studies majors?
 

xero9

macrumors 6502a
Nov 7, 2006
863
486
It's silly to call for diversity when Tim Cook himself continues to hide his homossexuality. Is this the kind of example he wants to set at Apple? "Stay hidden and don't tell anyone about it"?

Genuinely curious, but are there any examples you can provide?
 

PracticalMac

macrumors 68030
Jan 22, 2009
2,857
5,242
Houston, TX
Sorry, but I found the idea of purposely hiring minorities for the sake of "diversity" ridiculous. Hire the best person for the job, not the one who'll improve your diversity report numbers.

Agree,

but there is also a good argument for diversity in thought by hieing someone who may not be the best but brings a different perspective.
 

Orlandoech

macrumors 68040
Jun 2, 2011
3,341
887
And of course there are people who are hypersensitive to the hyper-sensitives and are offended over the other side being offended over the lack of diversity.

Which doesn't make them any better.... Just the other side of the very same coin....

Back to the point, hire the best people regardless of sex, race, sexual orientation, etc. That is the ideal anyway.


Completely agree. While Im not easily offended, things do offend me. While I dont consider myself hyper-sensitive, those whom are do annoy me ha.

But I agree, and ideal way would be beneficial for everyone but in the end, if the numbers aren't where Apple wants them, they shouldn't hire certain individuals based off their "numbers".
 

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
americans are so weird about that ... the first time I had to fill out the form to fly to the US I was so confused by the question "Are you white, black, latin american, asian ..." like wtf? what does it matter.
 

Kaibelf

Suspended
Apr 29, 2009
2,445
7,444
Silicon Valley, CA
And who said that's the case? Take a place like NYC, which is the most diverse place in the world. If all the Apple stores combined in NYC had 95% white employment you would not see an obvious issue with that?

I think it's great that Apple is proud of the diversity in it's employees.

We're talking about this article, which clearly states that "only three out of 10 employees around the globe are female" as if somehow Apple's ignoring an overwhelming female tide of software developers and industrial designers or something.
 
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