NEW YORK–Black employees held a lower share of top U.S. financial services jobs in 2018 than they did more than a decade earlier, according to new research by the Financial Times.
Larger financials, however, have shown greater progress in diversifying their workforces, the same report found.
The Financial Times said the data indicate the shortcomings of Wall Street’s long-running efforts to improve racial diversity.
The FT reported it analyzed the most recently available anonymized data on the demographics of 3.6-million staff across 13,000 financial services employers in the U.S. from 2007 to 2018. All companies with more than 100 staff were required to submit the information to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 2007.
The analysis found Black staff account for 13% of all finance staff and are the sector’s biggest ethnic minority. But in the most senior jobs, they are the only demographic whose share fell from 2007 to 2018, the research found.
‘It Begs the Question’
The decline — from 2.87% to 2.62%— comes against the backdrop of multiple initiatives by financial services firms designed to improve racial diversity by identifying, training and mentoring talent from ethnic minorities, the Times stated.
“It begs the question of all of the efforts and all of the energy that was put into this: ‘what are they doing and why is none of this working?’” Dee Marshall, chief executive of Diverse & Engaged, a diversity consultancy that focuses on financial services, told the Financial Times. “If you’re wondering why there is no progress [for Black staff], look at hiring, look at pay, look at performance appraisal process.”
According to the FT analysis, overall the EEOC data showed that Black employees have only seen significant growth in the most junior roles in finance, a group that accounts for 42% of the sector’s total workforce. Black employees now make up 18.9% of those more junior jobs, versus 17.4% in 2007, the FT reported.
Bigger Firms Do Better
Separately, the FT said it also compiled figures from 20 big U.S. financial services firms that publish their EEOC submissions, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and American Express. The research found that several institutions had made far faster progress than the overall trend.
Of the 20 companies whose data the FT analyzed, PayPal had the highest percentage of non-white workers in senior roles, at 33.7%. Goldman Sachs had the highest percentage of non-white workers in mid-level roles, at 44.1%. PayPal’s 58.8% of non-white workers in professional roles was also the highest non-white representation in that category.