Google Throws Out Diversity Hiring Targets, Considers Cutting DEI Programs

Google is eliminating diversity targets in its hiring process and has begun an extensive review of the “risks” posed by the company’s DEI programs, marking a major pullback in the tech giant’s approach to workforce representation.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the tech giant will no longer set specific targets for boosting minority representation in its workforce.

This marks a major shift away from Google’s 2020 pledge to raise the proportion of underrepresented groups in management by 30% within five years. Google made this commitment along with several other tech companies following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent riots.

In an email to employees, Google said it was reviewing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that “raise risk, or that aren’t as impactful as we’d hoped” and noted recent court decisions and executive orders by President Trump aimed at limiting DEI programs. The company is also evaluating whether it will continue releasing annual diversity reports.

Black employees comprised 5.7% of Google’s U.S. workforce in 2024, an increase from 3.7% four years earlier, while Latino employees rose from 5.9% to 7.5%.

Google’s latest annual report released on Wednesday has omitted a pro-DEI sentence that had been present in the report since 2021.

That sentence stated that Google was “committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve.”

Google’s decision follows that of other major players in Silicon Valley, who are making similar moves to unwind or modify their own diversity targets and efforts.

Meta recently eliminated a team overseeing its diversity programs and ended formal goals for bringing in more women and minorities, with one senior human resources official telling employees that the “legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing.”

Around the same time, Amazon indicated it would wind down certain diversity-focused initiatives, and references to “diversity, equity and inclusion” being “good for business” were removed from the company’s website late last year.

Some companies have also quietly removed diversity language from official documents and public reports, hinting at a broader shift that extends beyond the tech sector.