New demographic information exhibits continued divide at Amazon By Reuters

By Ross Kerber

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:)’s executives ranks remained largely white, though the share of non-white executives rose modestly, whereas minorities continued to account for many of its blue-collar workforce as the web retailer grew quickly through the COVID-19 pandemic, based on new firm information.

The disclosure made Amazon the most important firm by market capitalization up to now to reply to a name from New York Metropolis Comptroller Scott Stringer for corporations to publicly launch a confidential federal kind, his workplace mentioned on Thursday.

In all 67 corporations within the S&P 100 launched or plan to launch their EEO-1 varieties, which present detailed employee info because of the marketing campaign, Stringer’s workplace mentioned.

A scarcity of racial or gender variety within the management of many U.S. companies has drawn focus since final 12 months’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

Demographic tendencies at Amazon are closely-watched in comparison with different expertise corporations partly due to the large blue-collar workforce staffing its warehouses and supply vans, making it one of many largest U.S. personal employers.

Amazon’s information on U.S. employees confirmed that as of the tip of October final 12 months, 71% of high executives had been white, down from 74% on the identical level in 2019.

The figures had been in the same vary as different huge expertise corporations, a number of of which haven’t but disclosed 2020 studies. An Amazon spokeswoman mentioned through e-mail the info exhibits it’s making progress on variety and famous hiring objectives it has set to enhance variety, together with hiring extra Black folks and ladies. Individuals of colour accounted for 42% of newly-hired executives in 2020, she mentioned.

Amazon’s whole U.S. employment now stands round 950,000, and the corporate has described extra hiring objectives.

Within the filings Amazon posted on its web site on Wednesday the largest single class of employees was “laborers and helpers,” accounting for about two-thirds of employees as of final October.

The shape confirmed such employees who had been Black, Hispanic or in different nonwhite classes made up 74% of such employees final 12 months, in contrast with 72% the prior 12 months.