Uber Staff Is Slightly Less White and Male, Diversity Report Says

Uber's second diversity report shows that the company has made some progress in increasing the number of women and people of color in its workforce. However, the company's staff is only slightly less white and male than before.

"We have made meaningful progress over the last year, but we still have a lot of work to do to increase representation of women and underrepresented groups," Liane Hornsey, Uber's Chief Human Resources Officer, wrote in a blog post.

Over the past year, Uber said it increased its number of female employees by 1.9 percent, to 38 percent representation overall. The proportion of women in technology roles increased 2.5 percent to 17.9 percent, and 4.3 percent in technology leadership roles to 15.6 percent. However, the proportion of women in overall leadership roles decreased by 1.1 percent to 20.9 percent.

According to the report, Uber's staff is 48.6 percent white, which is 1.2 percent less than last year. The number of Latino employees increased by 0.5 percent, but the number of African-American employees decreased by 0.7 percent. In tech roles, 46.3 percent of staff are white, but the amount of Latino and African-American employees increased by 0.9 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively. In overall leadership roles, the number of white staff decreased 11.6 percent to 65.1 percent, while proportion of Asian, African-American, and Latino employees increased by 9.2 percent, 0.5 percent, and 0.6 percent, respectively.

Uber also tracked LGBTQ representation for the first time. Hornsey said 15 percent of employees who opted to disclose this information identify as LGBTQ.

While most other tech companies have staffs that are overwhelmingly white and male, diversity has become a major issue for Uber because of a series of scandals. Last year, the company faced accusations of sexual harassment by a female former employee, which triggered a damning investigation by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The controversy led to the ouster of CEO Travis Kalanick, who was replaced by current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

More recently, Uber has taken additional steps to prove it is serious about increasing diversity. Earlier this year, the company hired Bo Young Lee as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, and created a Diversity Advisory Council. Uber has partnered with Girls Who Code and Iridescent to encourage development of a more diverse tech workforce, and will work with BUILD, Code.org, and SMASH to further that goal.