Silicon Valley Tech Workforce Is Vastly Different From US, Say Feds (computerworld.com)

Reader dcblogs shares an article on Computer World: In recent years, major high-tech firms have started releasing workforce diversity data, along with a promise to improve. And there is much room for improvement, according to federal officials. Among the top 75 Silicon Valley tech firms, whites make up 47% of the workforce, Asian Americans 41%, Hispanics, 6% and African Americans 3%, according to an analysis by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Women account for 30% of the workforce at these 75 firms. The diversity makeup of these Silicon Valley high-tech firms is very different from the national employment picture. When compared to overall private industry employment, the tech sector nationally -- not just Silicon Valley -- employed a larger share of whites (63% to 68%), as well as a larger share of Asian Americans (6% to 14%) and a smaller share of African Americans (14% to 7%) and Hispanics (14% to 8%). Employers with a workforce greater than 100 file reports to the EEOC about their employees' race, color, gender and national origin. Nationally, 64% of the employees in high-tech are men versus 52% in the broader workforce. Women account for 36% of the tech workforce, versus comprising 48% of the broader workforce.

Comments

Desi Indians?

[Anonymous Coward]

So, my takeaway from this is that Indians (i.e. from the subcontinent, not the reservation) self-report as white.

Re:Desi Indians?

[lgw]

These figures have never matched with my experience in software, unless they're talking about all the non-tech people at tech companies. In 10 years in Silly Valley and Seattle, across 5 companies, the usual mix is about 40% Indian, 35% Asian (mostly Chinese), 20% White, 5% I don't know.

People born in America are around 2%. Yup 2% - I've been the only one on the team of 50-100 born in the US, with the exception of just one company. When I see a white engineer, I automatically assume they're either Canadian or Russian/Ukrainian. All this talk about "diversity" and whatnot in the US schools has always seemed entirely irrelevant to West Coast software development jobs.

Maybe it's different outside of software?

Re: Desi Indians?

[Bartles]

You don't understand. Diversity doesn't mean Indians or Asians. It means more African Americans, women, and transgendered people, regardless of what portion they already make up.

Re:Desi Indians?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the free market economy plain and simple.

Except that it's not a free market economy.

Indians pay no Federal Income Tax (read my lips). Oh yeah, it's deducted from their pay, but they get it all back when they file.
Indians are willing to live 4+ in a two-bedroom apartment; are you willing to compete with them on that?
Ever been to Mumbai, India? Like pooping in the street? That's what Americans are competing against.

Oh, your hamburger example is stupid too, plain and simple. All of the "chain" restaurants are so close in price as
to not make any difference at all, and the better hamburger places tend to be more expensive. Amazingly, they're
still in business, too. You failed to consider or explain that subtle point.

I'm not against Indians per se; it's a very bad system in the U.S. of A. right now. Please don't paint hard-working
Americans like toe jam because they have dignity and refuse to stoop to that way of living to compete...

CAP === 'digests'

Re: Desi Indians?

[backslashdot]

Same thing with the spelling bee I don't know why they allow so many Indian kids do so well in it. The prize money of $40,000 cash is so low that only Indian kids want it. They need to make the prize money higher so that American citizen kids would want to compete:/study for it too.

Re:Desi Indians?

[ShanghaiBill]

Indians are willing to live 4+ in a two-bedroom apartment; are you willing to compete with them on that?

I am white, and born in America. For my first 8 years in Silicon Valley, I lived in my office (and saved a ton of money doing so). I have never had any problem competing with Indians, or Chinese or anyone else. Here is my secret: Be worth what you are paid. You can do that by focusing on getting-shit-done instead of whining about how the world is oppressing highly educated American born white males.

Re:Desi Indians?

[saloomy]

Your a fucking moron, see as follows:

Indians pay no Federal Income Tax (read my lips). Oh yeah, it's deducted from their pay, but they get it all back when they file

Indians are in fact required to pay Federal Taxes, they are not required to pay into social security (SSID)because they can not get it when they retire. Their work visas simply expire since they no longer hold a job and return to India or apply for permanent residency.

Indians are willing to live 4+ in a two-bedroom apartment; are you willing to compete with them on that? Ever been to Mumbai, India? Like pooping in the street? That's what Americans are competing against.

Clearly you have not since they don't live like that and haven't for a long time. Do you really think companies are hiring some homeless indian with an OLPC laptop hooked up to a car battery living in the gutter without the means to pay for a haircut or toiletries? Of course you don't, but your too much of an ass much to know better. Travel to Hyderabad and see who your competition is, and how they compete with you. But they have a right to compete with you and are willing to do so, who are you to say "No! you must pay me more even though they are willing to live a less-costly lifestyle and accept less pay." Get your fucking entitled ass-wipes off my software prices / costs. I don't want to pay more for software in america because of ass-munch software developers costing us more economically than some place with greater freedom to hire whomever they want. We get the best value for our buck when our suppliers hire their best bang for their buck, no if's and's or but's.

Oh, your hamburger example is stupid too, plain and simple. All of the "chain" restaurants are so close in price as to not make any difference at all, and the better hamburger places tend to be more expensive. Amazingly, they're still in business, too. You failed to consider or explain that subtle point.

You completely missed the point where he said "If two companies are selling comparable hamburgers". I mean, how could you miss that? It's how the sentence started! Are your reading skills that bad or do you black in and out, because if you do, you should really have that looked at. Re-read the posts you reply to so you don't look like an ass-munch who doesn't pay attention to details, like an Indian programmer does.

I'm not against Indians per se; it's a very bad system in the U.S. of A. right now. Please don't paint hard-working Americans like toe jam because they have dignity and refuse to stoop to that way of living to compete..

Then get out of the market. If you are truly uncompetitive and can't compete, then you should stop costing some poor company their valuable resources.

-- A fourth generation American programmer

Likely a Number of Causes

[cyriustek]

I do not find the racial and sex mixture for Silicone Valley to be odd considering the following factors. I am not saying these are good things, but they are the big influences IMO:

1) Privilege and Opportunity - It has been my experience that many of these people either grew up in a solidly middle class or upper middle class environment. A good education was available for them from birth, right through to university. This education makes a big difference.

2) Birds of a Feather Flock Together - People often associate themselves with others who are like-minded, and similar in a number of characteristics. This could even include race.

3) Females & Sciences - Women in general are under-represented in the sciences, especially within IT. IT has built itself a nice little sausagefest.

Having noted all of the above, SV is getting more diverse now by giving the high paying jobs to people with H1B Visas. I am not so sure this is a good thing. It would be awesome if the USA can get more opportunities for its current population.

Conspiracy

[fluffernutter]

Why is this news? There's only a conspiracy if the ratio of applicants' races differs greatly to those hired, and if there is proof that high quality applicants were turned away. Maybe African Americans and Hispanics just don't want to work 16 hour days with an expensive mortgage to cover.

Parental education is a large factor

[davidwr]

If you look only at 2nd-generation-or-more Americans (those whose parents were born and raised in America), parental education probably accounts for most of the difference for Whites, African-Americans, and Hispanics.

High-tech is typically skewed towards the highly-trained, which is correlated with parents who value education.

Among those whose parents aren't immigrants, having parents who value education is correlated to having educated parents. Having educated parents is also correlated to growing up in a middle-class-or-higher household.

Thanks to American's sad history of racial discrimination, having educated parents is also highly correlated to being non-Hispanic white and negatively correlated with being anything else, at least with respect to people whose parents were raised in the United States.

What about qualified applicants for these jobs?

[Onuma]

These numbers are effectively arbitrary, especially without knowing about the demographics, skills, certifications, qualifications, etc., of the applicants.

Articles such as this suggest a lot of things in a very hypocritical manner, or are at least exceedingly one-sided in scope. The author is jumping to conclusions without having any data to back it up.

Race doesn't matter...

[hsthompson69]

...culture does.

Until people start rejecting thug culture, or barrio culture, and start embracing "white" or "asian" culture, with proper english, a commitment to academics, and a disavowal of violence and misogyny, they're not going to get into the well paying tech jobs.

Re:I agree

[BronsCon]

We only need more woman and minorities in tech if they want to be here. Or are you implying we should enslave enough black people to raise their presence from 3% to 14%? Or force women to sit in front of a computer the way 1950's housewives were forced into the kitchen until women make up an additional 18% of the tech workforce?

That just seems wrong to me.

Show me reports of minorities and women trying to work in tech and not being able to find jobs, enough of them to make up for the disparity; then I'll agree we need to hire more of them. Until then, I'll go on assuming that those who want to work in this field do work in this field, and I'll be fine with that as I'm, personally, against forcing people into positions.

Re:Here we go again

[AK Marc]

You are a racist bigot when you assume the diversity hire *isn't* the best surgeon available.