Amazon diversity data shows divide remains between corporate, warehouse workers

Amazon.com Inc.'s hiring spree in 2020 totaled almost 379,000 people, 60% of whom were people of color hired for warehouse roles, according to data provided to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The data was from annual reports companies are required to provide to the EEOC, that show how companies are hiring across racial and gender groups, unlike other demographic data released by Amazon in which it defined its categories.

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) had stopped releasing the data in 2016, but last year New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer pressured the company into disclosing it. Since the last time Amazon released the data, the company has added almost 800,000 employees in the U.S. and eclipsed the Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) as Washington state's largest employer. Across the country, it trails only Walmart (NYSE: WMT).

Amazon's hiring in 2020 was largely focused on filling out its growing logistics network during the Covid-19 pandemic, as 4 in 5 new hires were categorized and laborers and helpers, according to the data. That category is Amazon's most diverse as well. About 19% of Amazon employees at the executive level in 2020 were people of color, compared with a little over 73% in warehouse and fulfillment center roles.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2021/09/23/amazon-diversity-data-workforce-pandemic.html