America is becoming more diverse, and with that comes challenges for big companies to make their workforces reflect the rest of the country.

Americans are noticing the changes and although many think that diversity is positive, it shouldn’t be the main factor that employers consider when hiring people.

A new study from the Pew Research Center showed that 49 percent of respondents said that diversity in the workplace is very important, with 67 percent of black respondent holding that same opinion. Workplace diversity was deemed very important to 43 percent of White respondents and 52 percent of Hispanic respondents.

However, while those surveyed encouraged workplace diversity, they were more skeptical of the pathway to actually achieving it. Only 24 percent of respondents said that employers should take a person’s ethnicity into account when promoting or hiring. While 74 percent said companies should only take a candidate’s qualifications into consideration when determining who should be in what job, even if it means they’ll be working in a company that’s less diverse.

White respondents were the largest group to share this sentiment, with 78 percent saying race shouldn’t be taken into consideration when hiring. However, 54 percent of black respondents and 69 percent of Hispanic respondents felt the same way. The gap is still wide, but the majority of respondents from all groups feel the same.

The results along the political spectrum however, were more divided.

“Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to say a person’s race and ethnicity shouldn’t be a part of hiring and promotion decisions. Even so, majorities of both groups (90% vs. 62%) hold this view. Again, this partisan difference is nearly unchanged among whites.”

-Pew Research

More major tech companies like Google, Lyft and Twitter, the lack of diversity has been a lingering issue amongst employees. The greater tech industry’s demographics struggle to reflect the changes happening within America and as hiring practice are increasingly being critiqued, it is a wonder if the industry will ever catch up with the rest of America.

Pew research center

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