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Amazon Releases Employee Diversity Report

 & David Murphy Freelancer

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Amazon has finally released its diversity figures. It's one of the last major technology companies to do so, and the move comes after the company received quite a bit of pressure from civil rights activists over the past few months.

"Amazon has hundreds of millions of customers who can benefit from diversity of thought. We are a company of builders who bring varying backgrounds, ideas, and points of view to inventing on behalf of our customers," reads a message from Amazon.

"Our diverse perspectives come from many sources including gender, race, age, national origin, culture, education, as well as professional and life experience. We are working to develop leaders and shape future talent pools to help us meet the needs of our customers around the world. As we invest in global programs to accelerate our progress, we want to share some of our actions."

The results? Amazon employs approximately 63 percent men to 37 percent women (throughout its entire workforce). Among its managers, the figures are stacked a bit higher in the male direction: 75 percent men versus 25 percent women.

As for ethnicity, Amazon's general workforce is mostly composed of white people (60%). After that, 15% of all Amazon employees are black, 13% are Asian, nine percent are Hispanic, and three percent are what Amazon lists as "other."

Among managers, the figures jump up to 71% white and 18% Asian. However, managers identifying as black or Hispanic drop to four percent each.

To Amazon's credit, it does go into length about the various affinity groups in place at the company—the Black Employee Network and GLAmazon, to name two—as well as the various ways Amazon partners with other organizations to increase the presence of minorities and women in the overall technological workforce.

And it's not as if Amazon's stats are an outlier. In fact, its diversity figures are pretty similar to what fellow tech bigwig Apple revealed this past August: 55% white, 15% Asian, 11% Hispanic, and seven percent black. As for gender, Apple sits at a ratio of 70% men to 30% women among its entire workforce.

In addition to its diversity programs, Amazon also noted its interest toward transitioning military skills to Amazon careers via its Military Talent Partnership program for veterans. The company also has programs in place that allow employees to receive tuition reimbursement for classes that allow them to grow their skills during their time at Amazon—regardless of whether those skills would ultimately be used to benefit Amazon or another employer.

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David Murphy

David Murphy

Freelancer

David Murphy got his first real taste of technology journalism when he arrived at PC Magazine as an intern in 2005. A three-month gig turned to six months, six months turned to occasional freelance assignments, and he later rejoined his tech-loving, mostly New York-based friends as one of PCMag.com's news contributors. For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).

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