APPLE MORE THAN DOUBLES HIRING OF WOMEN

APPLE MORE THAN DOUBLES HIRING OF WOMEN

ആപ്പിൾ വനിതാ ജീവനക്കാരുടെ എണ്ണം കൂട്ടുന്നു

Apple says it more than doubled the numbers of women, blacks and Hispanics hired in the last year, although that barely moved the needle in terms of improving the diversity of its total workforce.Like other major tech companies, Apple has been under public pressure to increase the number of women and minorities in a workforce that is overwhelmingly male and white or Asian. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has been joined by members of Congress and other critics calling for Silicon Valley firms to make their employees more representative of the population as a whole.Apple has been under public pressure to increase the number of women and minorities in a workforce that is overwhelmingly male and white or Asian.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement on Thursday that he's proud of his company's efforts, but acknowledged, "We know there is a lot more work to be done."The maker if iPhones, iPads and Mac computers issued a report Thursday that follows similar reports from Google, Facebook, Intel and other large tech companies. Most of those companies only began disclosing their hiring numbers after Jackson began pressing them to do so last year. One exception is Intel, which has been releasing diversity statistics for more than a decade.
Apple said 35 per cent of its new hires worldwide last year were women, while 24 per cent of US hires were black or Hispanic.As a result, Apple's global workforce of 110,000 is now 31 per cent women, up from 30 per cent last year. Its US workforce is 19 per cent black or Hispanic, up from 18 per cent. That includes employees in non-technical jobs, such as retail positions in Apple stores. By comparison, about 26 per cent of US workers across all industries are black or Hispanic.Critics are especially concerned about low diversity rates among technical workers, such as computer software developers or hardware engineers, which are usually the highest-paid jobs at most Silicon Valley companies, outside top management. The number of black and Hispanic workers in Apple's US-based technical jobs increased from 13 per cent last year to 15 per cent this year.The number of white and Asian technical workers at Apple also increased from 77 per cent last year to 78 per cent this year. The increases appeared to be matched by slight declines in the number of employees who identify as multi-racial or didn't declare their ethnicity.
In another key category, Apple said the number of whites in US-based leadership positions dropped to 63 per cent from 64 per cent, but the numbers of Asians, Hispanics and blacks stayed the same at 21 per cent, 6 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively.
Cook said in a statement that he's committed to hiring more women and minorities. He said Apple is also contributing funds to historically black colleges and programs that provide technology and skills-training to students in disadvantaged communities.
"Diversity is critical to innovation and it is essential to Apple's future," Cook said. "We aspire to do more than just make our company as diverse as the talent available to hire."
In response, Jackson praised Apple for making "solid, measurable progress." In a statement, he also applauded the company for releasing a copy of the detailed workforce statistics that major employers must report each year to the federal government. Apple and other tech companies have previously refused to make those reports public.But Jackson said he wants Apple and other tech companies to go beyond the federal report and provide more "comprehensive" data on hiring as well as purchasing and contracting with companies owned by women and minorities. He said that would provide "a much clearer picture of what companies are actually doing."While Silicon Valley companies have been reluctant to disclose such information, they are publicly embracing the notion of improving diversity. Intel issued its own report this week, showing that more than 43 per cent of its US hires this year were women or minorities, slightly better than the 40 per cent goal the company had set for itself.
Jackson also cited Hewlett-Packard for taking steps that address concerns about corporate boards in Silicon Valley, which tend to have few women and minority members. HP, which is splitting into two companies, announced that the board of each spinoff will include two black directors and four women.

കൺസ്യൂമർ ഇലക്ട്രോണിക്സ് രംഗത്തും, സോഫ്റ്റ്‌വെയർ നിർമ്മാണ രംഗത്തെയും പ്രമുഖരായ അമേരിക്കൻ മൾട്ടിനാഷണൽ കമ്പനി ആപ്പിൾ ഇൻകോർപ്പറേഷൻ‍ ഇക്കഴിഞ്ഞ വർഷം 11,000 വനിതാ ജീവനക്കാരെയാണ് ലോകത്തെമ്പാടുമുള്ള തങ്ങളുടെ സ്ഥാപനങ്ങളിൽ പുതുതായി നിയമിച്ചത്.മക്കിന്റോഷ് ശ്രേണിയിൽ പെട്ട കംപ്യൂട്ടറുകൾ, ഐപോഡ്, ഐപാഡ്, ഐഫോൺ എന്നിവയാണ് ആപ്പിളിന്റെ ലോക ശ്രദ്ധനേടിയ പ്രധാന കൺസ്യൂമർ ഇലക്ട്രോണിക്സ് ഉത്പന്നങ്ങൾ. അമേരിക്കയിലെ കലിഫോർണിയ ആസ്ഥാനമായി 1976 ഏപ്രിൽ 1 നു സ്ഥാപിക്കപ്പെട്ട ഈ കമ്പനി ജീവനക്കാരിലെ വർണ്ണ വർഗ്ഗ ലൈംഗിക സമത്വം ഉറപ്പാക്കുന്നതിന്റെ ഭാഗമാണ് കൂടുതൽ വനിതകളെ നിയമിച്ചത്.

മുൻവർഷങ്ങളെ അപേക്ഷിച്ച് 65 ശതമാനത്തിലധിക വനിതകളെയാണ് ആപ്പിൾ വിവിധ സ്ഥാപനങ്ങളിലേക്ക് റിക്രൂട്ട് ചെയ്തിരിക്കുന്നത്. അമേരിക്കയിൽ നിയമിച്ചവരിൽ കൂടുതലും കറുത്ത വർഗക്കാരായ വനിതകളും സ്പാനിഷ് മാതൃഭാഷയായുള്ളവരുമാണ് എന്നത് ജീവനക്കാരിലെ തുലനാവസ്ഥ നിലനിർത്താനുള്ള ശ്രമമാണെന്നാണ് സിഇഒ ടിം കുക്ക് ആപ്പിൾ ഔദ്യോഗിക വെബ്സൈറ്റിൽ നൽകിയിരിക്കുന്ന സന്ദേശത്തിൽ പറയുന്നത്.നിയമനങ്ങളിൽ ഇത്തരം നടപടികൾ തുടരുമെന്നും, സിലിക്കണ്‍ വാലിയെ സംബന്ധിച്ച പ്രധാന ചർച്ചാവിഷയമായ 'തൊഴിലാളികളിലെ അനുപാതരാഹിത്യം' കുറയ്ക്കുവാനുള്ള ശ്രമങ്ങൾ തുടർന്നും ഉണ്ടാകുമെന്നും ടിം കുക്ക് കൂട്ടിച്ചേർക്കുന്നു. 2014 സെപ്റ്റംബറിലെ കണക്കുകൾ പ്രകാരം ലോകത്താകെ ആപ്പിളിന് 92,600 ജീവനക്കാരാണുള്ളത്. കഴിഞ്ഞ വർഷം ഗൂഗിൾ നടത്തിയ നിയമനങ്ങളിൽ 21 ശതമാനവും വനിതകളായിരുന്നു.

Prof.John Kurakar