Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Building up Black tech talent
Diversity & Inclusion | Talent | Technology
March 6, 2023 – There is a dearth of Black workers in tech jobs in America. Although Black people comprise 12 percent of the US workforce, only 8 percent of employees in tech jobs are Black, find senior partner Mark McMillan, partner Jan Shelly Brown, and colleagues. The percentage shrinks even more up the corporate ladder; only 3 percent of technology executives in the C-suite are Black, and that gap is likely to widen over the next decade.
To read the article, see “How to close the Black tech talent gap,” February 3, 2023.
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Visual form
Small-multiple donut chart grid.
Layout / body structure
The visual is laid out as a grid of circular mini-charts, read left to right and top to bottom, with the overall workforce share shown first and then a sequence of specific tech roles.
What is being compared
It compares the share of Black talent in the overall US workforce with the share in specific technology roles such as software developers, data scientists, web developers, CIOs and IT managers, network architects, cybersecurity, and support roles.
Measurement system
The measure is percent share, shown as the blue slice of each donut and repeated as a number inside the ring. A reference marker for the 12 percent overall workforce share appears across the set so each role can be judged against that baseline.
Visible structure inside the graphic
Each role gets one donut with a small blue segment for Black representation and a gray remainder for the rest of the workforce. The grid makes the underrepresentation pattern easy to scan because many high-growth technical roles have noticeably smaller blue wedges than the 12 percent reference donut.
Main takeaway from the visual
Black talent is especially underrepresented in the fastest-growing technical roles, while a few support or infrastructure roles move closer to or even above the overall workforce benchmark. The pattern is broad enough across the grid that it reads as a pipeline problem, not a single-role anomaly.
Key standout values or extremes
The baseline workforce share is 12 percent. Software developers show only 4 percent, data scientists 6 percent, web developers 6 percent, CIOs and IT managers 6 percent, and computer hardware engineers 7 percent. At the other end of the grid, IT project management reaches 13 percent and cybersecurity 15 percent.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static chart image with no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart image is the full visual on this page.