A new report from the Computing Technology Industry Association offers a wealth of data on employment in the technology sector. Tech employment in the United States reached an estimated 12,159,552 workers in 2020. Some of the data included in the report on employment in technology jobs is broken down by racial and ethnic group.
Nationally, Black or African American workers represent 13 percent of the U.S. workforce and 8 percent of tech occupations. This gap signals underrepresentation in the tech workforce. African Americans make up more than 20 percent of tech workers in Mississippi, Georgia, and Maryland as well as in the District of Columbia.
In Arizona, African Americans make up 5 percent of the total workforce and 5 percent of all tech workers. In every other state, Blacks are a smaller percentage of the tech workforce than they are in the total workforce. There are gaps of 10 percentage points or more in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area has more than 44,000 African Americans employed in tech jobs, the most of any city. The only other metropolitan areas with more than 20,000 African Americans employed in tech jobs are Atlanta and New York.
In the San Jose, California, metropolitan area, home to Silicon Valley, there are just over 3,000 African Americans employed in tech positions. In contrast, there are 45,000 White workers and more than 107,000 Asian American workers.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, African Americans are 3 percent of the overall workforce and 3 percent of all tech workers. In every other metropolitan area listed in the report, African Americans are a smaller percentage of the tech workforce than they are in the overall workforce. Cities where the gap is 10 percentage points or more include Atlanta, Charleston, Huntsville, Memphis, and New Orleans.
The full report: Cyberstates 2021: The Definitive Guide to the U.S. Tech Industry and Tech Workforce, may be downloaded here.
