Google (GOOG, GOOGL) is backing away from diversity hiring targets, setting up a stark divide in Silicon Valley as corporate DEI goals come under intensifying scrutiny in Washington, D.C.
A spokesperson for the internet search giant said on Wednesday that it told its employees it would do away with aspirational hiring goals tied to representation.
The company had been reviewing its programs designed to create an equal opportunity workplace and evaluating any changes required “following recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic,” Google’s spokesperson told Yahoo Finance.
Newly confirmed US Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo to federal employees on Wednesday saying that the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division would investigate, eliminate, and penalize illegal diversity, equity, and inclusion actions for private sector institutions that receive federal funds.
Google joins Meta (META) among major Silicon Valley firms that have done about-faces on certain corporate diversity initiatives.
Not all tech giants are retreating from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices. Apple (AAPL) has asked investors to vote down a shareholder proposal encouraging the iPhone maker to assess risks of its DEI programs. That vote will take place later this month.
“Apple is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in recruiting, hiring, training, or promoting on any basis protected by law,” the company said in its proxy statement.
Microsoft (MSFT) also said it has kept its talent, diversity, inclusion, and learning team intact despite a report last year that two roles were eliminated. In December, its chief diversity officer Lindsay-Rae McIntyre published a defense of the company’s approach to the issue on LinkedIn.
“The business case” for diversity and inclusion, wrote McIntyre, “is not only constant but stronger than ever.”
Many prominent companies are withdrawing from DEI policies as legal and political pressure on the programs mount. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office that ended federal DEI programs and ordered US agencies to “combat illegal private sector DEI actions.”
“My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense,” Trump told business leaders and politicians last month during a virtual address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The retreats over the last year include Walmart (WMT), McDonald’s (MCD), Lowe’s (LOW), Ford (F), Tractor Supply (TSCO), John Deere (DE), and retailer Target (TGT).
Many of these moves were also influenced by a recent US Supreme Court decision that outlawed colleges and universities from applying race-based quotas to admission decisions, a ruling that prompted some conservative groups to ramp up their efforts to eliminate diverse hiring practices.
A view of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/File Photo ·REUTERS / Reuters
The 6-3 ruling, which sided with Asian and white Americans rejected from Harvard and the University of North Carolina, held that admission decisions that factored in race-based affirmative action violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause as well as the Civil Rights Act.
Outside Silicon Valley, there are some other companies pushing back against challenges to their diversity efforts.
One is Costco (COST), which urged its stockholders to defeat a shareholder resolution from the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, that would have forced the company to evaluate risks from its DEI practices.
The measure was roundly defeated, with 98% of investors siding with the company.
Some big banks are also holding firm, for now. The CEOs of JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Goldman Sachs (GS) said last month they will focus on efforts to promote DEI even as those banks are emerging as targets of activist groups pushing them to trim these efforts, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Google’s chief diversity officer, Melonie Parker. (Photo by David Miller/Stillman College via Getty Images) ·Stillman College via Getty Images
Even as Google does away with diversity hiring targets, it said it planned to keep in place its central Employee Resource Groups — internal networks created to help employees form stronger bonds and provide a sense of inclusion and belonging.
It also plans to continue its work with universities and colleges to build products to help all of Google’s users and partners.
In Google’s 2024 Annual Diversity Report, the company’s chief diversity officer Melonie Parker said “as we look back at our efforts across 2023, we’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re not stopping now.”
In 2024, Google’s US workforce was 45.3% white (a decrease from 46.2% the prior year), 45.7% Asian (an increase from 44.8% the prior year), 5.7% Black (roughly flat compared to 5.6% the prior year), 7.5% Hispanic (roughly flat compared to 7.3% the prior year), and 0.9% Native American (roughly flat compared to 0.8% the prior year). The population skewed heavily male at 66.2%, with 33.8% female.
That same year, 39.5% of US new hires were white (a decrease from 40.3% the prior year), 42.9% Asian (a decrease from 48.9% the prior year), 12.1% Black (an increase from 7.2% the prior year), 11.6% Hispanic (an increase from 8.5% the prior year), and 1.6% Native American (a minor increase over 1.1% the prior year).
Hiring in the US also skewed heavily male at 67.6%, with 32.4% female.
Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on X @alexiskweed.
