Some tech companies abandon diversity reports as they go mum on DEI

Some tech companies have stopped reporting diversity reports, a change that could negatively affect employers and employees, according to one diversity leader.

Catch up. Many tech companies—including Google, Meta (then Facebook), and X (then Twitter)—began issuing workforce demographic reports in 2014, after civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson called on leaders to increase diversity and equality in their organizations. “There’s no talent shortage. There’s an opportunity shortage,” Jackson told USA Today in 2014, of the industry’s inability to recruit women and people of color.

Since then, tech companies have been criticized for their slow progress toward diversity. In its 2024 report, Google noted that just 33.8% of its US employees were women, virtually unchanged from 2022, and up from 29.0% in 2014. While it more than doubled its Black representation, Black workers accounted for just 5.7% of its US workforce.

Now, the industry appears divided as to whether companies should publish these reports at all. Google and Microsoft skipped their diversity reports this year, while Amazon, Apple, and Nvidia released their reports, with no insight whether they could continue to do so, according to Wired.

Other tech giants, including Meta and X, haven’t released such data since at least 2022, as CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have walked back DEI priorities. Others, like Palantir and Oracle, have long declined to disclose workforce demographics, defending their decision to do so as a “trade secret,” which led to Palantir being sued for those records in 2018.

In October 2024, Microsoft recommitted to its DEI journey and its vow to build a more diverse workforce, and admitted it could do better, its chief diversity officer, Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, told HR Brew.

“We are not doing a traditional report this year as we’ve evolved beyond that to formats that are more dynamic and accessible—stories, videos, and insights that show inclusion in action,” Frank Shaw, chief communications officer at Microsoft, told HR Brew via email. “Our mission and commitment to our culture and values remain unchanged: empowering every person and organization to achieve more.”

Google did respond to requests for comment for this story.

Looking deeper. Corporate diversity efforts have faced unprecedented attacks from conservative activists and the Trump administration in 2025, HR Brew reported. “I’m not going to pretend that political sway hasn’t played a part in this. We know it has,” Abi Adamson, founder of the Culture Partnership, told HR Brew of companies ending diversity reports.

Dozens of companies have rolled back DEI initiatives, deleted previous diversity reports, and dissolved entire teams. These decisions can negatively impact businesses, and eliminating diversity reports can exacerbate existing inequalities, according to Adamson.

“It’s important that we’re clear about what’s happening when tech companies stop releasing DEI reports. They’re also ending transparency around discrimination,” she said. “You cannot fix the internal workplace challenges you have if you are not going to measure it. So these reports weren’t nice to have. They were accountability mechanisms.”

Diversity reports can help the public see how companies are doing from a diversity and inclusion standpoint, which can impact recruitment and retention, Adamson said. She added that this dearth of diversity data can harm marginalized groups, because workers won’t have access to information that could show patterns in recruitment, pay, and promotion.

“A lot of these organizations, all these tech giants, are forgetting that the pendulum always swings back the other way,” Adamson said. “Ultimately, the best talent is not going to stay in these companies. So these tech cultures are already perfectly designed to protect those who plant it, they’re there to protect the Jeff Bezos and the Mark Zuckerberg and the Bill Gates and all these other super powerful, incredibly wealthy white men, and now they’re just really pulling up the signs and showing exactly what we always knew, which is that they never cared.”