Technology companies employ strikingly few black and Hispanic workers. They blame the recruitment pipeline, saying there arenβt enough of them graduating with relevant degrees and applying for tech jobs.
Yet the data show that there are many more black and Hispanic students majoring in computer science and engineering than work in tech jobs. So why arenβt they being hired?
Those who enter the candidate pipeline fall out somewhere along the way β and the culture and recruiting methods of tech companies seem to have a lot to do with it.
The pipeline problem is not a myth. Black and Hispanic students are underrepresented in computer science and engineering programs, relative to their share of the population, while Asian students are overrepresented.
Yet the pipeline is more fruitful than tech companies make it out to be. Among young computer science and engineering graduates with bachelorβs or advanced degrees, 57 percent are white, 26 percent are Asian, 8 percent are Hispanic and 6 percent are black, according to American Community Survey data. At the top 25 undergraduate programs, nearly 9 percent of graduates are underrepresented minorities, according to Education Department data analyzed by Maya A. Beasley, a sociologist at the University of Connecticut.