Posted on November 4, 2014

Amazon Diversity Report Shows It’s Largely White, Male

Jessica Guynn, USA Today, October 31, 2014

Under pressure from civil rights activists, Amazon.com released the gender and racial make-up of its work force on Friday, revealing its staff is largely white and male.

The technology giant said 63% of its workers and 75% of managers around the world are men.

In the U.S., 60% of the work force is white while 15% is black, 13% is Asian, 9% is Hispanic and 3% is other.

Managers in the U.S. are overwhelmingly white at 71%.

Eighteen percent of managers are Asian, 4% are Hispanic, 4% are black and 3% are other.

Most Amazon workers work in distribution centers so its work force is more diverse than some companies. It’s probably most similar to Apple. Most Apple employees in the U.S. work in retail stores. Apple said in August that 55% of its U.S. staff is white, while 15% is Asian, 11% is Hispanic and 7% is black.

Amazon did not disclose the racial or gender breakdown for technical workers as all other technology companies have.

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The Seattle, Wa., company agreed to release the demographics of its work force after Rev. Jesse Jackson turned up the pressure in September.

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“I am disappointed with the lack of disclosure and the lateness of the disclosure,” Jackson said in an interview. “They have not stated any plan to change the pattern of exclusion. They are not saying: ‘Here is our plan.'”