For Clues on Silicon Valley's Future Diversity, Look at the Interns

Silicon Valley's (CA) poor diversity record for employees was confirmed in 2015 when Google and Facebook owned up to the lack of minorities on their current payrolls. But what about the diversity of their future payrolls? A look at tech companies' intern classes can provide a clue as to whether these companies' future staffs will be less homogeneous. At least, it could if tech companies released demographic data on this next generation of full-time staffers.

"Who your interns are influences who your workforce is in two years," said Ruthe Farmer, the chief strategy and growth officer of the National Center for Women and Information Technology. "And that influences who your workforce is in four years because they have networks to recruit from." Companies are not required to break down diversity statistics on their unpaid interns to the Equal Employment Opportunity Center and any data about paid interns could be folded into broader diversity statistics about employees, an EEOC spokeswoman said. Some of the biggest public technology firms, including Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Yahoo!, declined to share demographic data on its interns.