Ever so slowly, diversity in computing jobs is improving: It’ll be equitable in a century

A great but sobering blog post from Code.org. Yes, computing is becoming more diverse, but at a disappointingly slow rate. Is it possible to go faster? Or is this just the pace at which we can change a field?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, yes, but very slowly. We’ve analyzed the Current Population Survey data from the past few years to see how many people are employed in computing occupations, and the percentage of women, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latino employees.

What did we find? There are about 5 million people employed in computing occupations, 24% of whom are women, and 15% of whom are Black/African American or Hispanic/Latino.

Since 2014, the trends in representation, although small, have been moving in the right direction — all three groups showed a tiny increase in representation. However, changes would need to accelerate significantly to reach meaningful societal balance in our lifetimes. If the current pace of increases continue, it would take over a century* until we saw balanced representation in computing careers.

Source: Is diversity in computing jobs improving? – Code.org – Medium