Facebook's annual diversity report shows it's making little headway on boosting its numbers of Black employees

• Facebook published its annual diversity report on Wednesday.
• The new data shows the company is still struggling to hire and retain Black employees, and workers from other underrepresented groups.
• Just 3.9% of the company's US workforce is Black, barely up from 3.8% in 2019.

Facebook has made little headway in hiring Black employees over the past year.

On Wednesday, the social networking firm published its annual diversity report — with the results showing the company remains largely male — and struggling to hire and retain workers from underrepresented backgrounds.

Over the last 12 months, the percentage of Black Facebook employees in the US barely budged, increasing from 3.8% to 3.9%. That makes Black people significantly underrepresented at the company compared to among the broader US population, which is 13.4% Black, according to census data.

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The new data comes as the US faces widespread protests over racism and police brutality, and workplaces and broader society grapple with racism and discrimination. Facebook announced a number of changes in response to the Black Lives Matter protests, including having Chief Diversity Officer Maxine Williams report directly to COO Sheryl Sandberg, and a $100 million grant and ad credit program focused on Black-owned businesses and creators.

According to the new report, men make up 63% of Facebook's workforce globally, just down from 63.1% in 2019. In 2014, that number was 69%. They are particularly overrepresented in technical roles, comprising 75.9% in 2020 (down from 77% in 2019, and 85% in 2014).

Asian employees saw continued gains at the company, growing to 44.4% of the total US workforce, and the percentage of Hispanic workers also increased by a little over a percentage point in 12 months, from 5.2% to 6.3%.

The majority of Black employees work in non-technical roles: Just 1.7% of technical workers at Facebook in the US in 2020 are Black, up from 1.5% in 2019, and 1% in 2014.

In a blog post accompanying the report, Williams wrote that Facebook is committing to "increase the representation of people of color in leadership positions in the US by 30%, including a 30% increase in the representation of Black people in leadership, by 2025."

Earlier in July, the news broke that a Facebook recruiter had filed a federal complaint against the company, alleging it is biased against Black employees and job candidates.

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