NEW RESEARCH FROM NPOWER AND LIGHTCAST REVEALS THE TALENT POOL OF WOMEN OF COLOR WITH TECH-SIMILAR SKILLS IS INCREASING FASTER THAN THEIR SHARE OF TECH JOBS

EVEN AMID LAYOFFS, APPROXIMATELY 413K POSITIONS IN TECH AND TECH-ENABLED SECTORS REMAIN UNFILLED

NPower’s Command Shift, a Coalition of Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits and other leading organizations, issues an urgent call to action to companies in tech and tech-enabled sectors to prioritize recruiting, retaining, and advancing women of color with tech-similar skills

What you need to know:

• Following NPower’s 2022 Equation for Equality research report, which showed there were 2.6M women of color with many of the skills needed to succeed in tech jobs — new data revealed today shows that this “skill-similar” talent pool has increased by 4% or 100K over the latest year for which data is available (2020 to 2021).
• Yet, research on the share of jobs held by women of color in tech over a 10-year period (2011 to 2021), has increased just over 1 percentage point, from approximately 5% to 6.25%.
• Even amid layoffs by tech giants, the data show that there are still an estimated 413K online job postings for tech jobs available in the U.S.
• NPower’s Command Shift Coalition is reaffirming its goal of growing the representation of women of color in tech jobs from 5% to 10% in 10 years to move toward equity in the sector — by pushing for a percentage point increase every two to three years, versus a percentage point increase over a decade.

BROOKLYN, N.Y., March 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Today, national tech training nonprofit NPower, which focuses on advancing race and gender equity and increasing economic prosperity for underrepresented populations through tech jobs, in partnership with leading labor market analytics firm Lightcast, revealed that the number of women of color with many of the skills needed to succeed in tech jobs, has increased by 100,000 over the most recent year of data (2020 to 2021, using the latest Census figures), yet their share of jobs in tech has remained at a near standstill — from approximately 5% to 6.25% over a 10-year period (2011 to 2021).

Despite recent tech layoffs, Lightcast data show that there are still approximately 413,000 open tech jobs in the U.S., including in fields such as finance, healthcare, transportation, government and other areas.

Today’s data is a follow-up to the Command Shift Coalition’s 2022 Equation for Equality report that first identified the already “tech-enabled, skill similar” workforce of women of color, who with more tech training, would be able to transition into tech jobs. The skill-similar talent pool is based on an analysis by Lightcast of knowledge, skills, and abilities between tech and non-tech jobs, which sowed that there are approximately 500 feasible paths to the tech sector for women of color already working in tech-adjacent positions today. Examples of these transitions include the following:

• Customer Service Representatives—which include more than 300,000 Black, Latina, and American Indian women—already using customer relationship management (CRM) software and digital productivity tools.
  
  
• Electronic Records Specialists in the healthcare field, where women of color are highly concentrated, frequently navigating electronic medical record (EMR) software to digitally trace records across a multitude of databases.

“As tech transitions away from the recruiting ‘boom time’ of the pandemic and into a new normal and amid a fluctuating economy, it’s an opportunity for tech and tech-enabled sectors to develop strategies that create more space for women of color with foundational tech skills to not only enter tech, but help better their business outcomes while also bettering the lives of these talented women,” says Candice Dixon, executive director of the Command Shift coalition.

Increasing Women of Color in Tech: Command Shift Reaffirms its Goal
In 2022, NPower’s coalition Command Shift committed to doubling the representation of women of color in tech jobs, from 5% to 10% in 10 years to achieve equity. Based on today’s data, to achieve this, the share of jobs held by women of color in tech- and tech-enabled sectors would need to increase by 1 percentage point every few years, rather than 1 percentage point every ten years.

To accomplish this, Command Shift is calling upon all companies who employ tech workers to prioritize hiring women of color from the ‘skill similar’ talent pool.

“While diversity and inclusion in the tech sector has shown some progress over the last few decades, it’s clear from NPower’s new research that so much more work must be done, and with renewed urgency, to truly achieve equality for women of color in this sector,” says Ann Marr, Vice President of Global Human Resources at World Wide Technology. “World Wide Technology is proud to support Command Shift in this effort to rewire hiring and recruitment practices to become more inclusive, because when women of color are given opportunity in tech, everyone wins, including the bottom line.”

About Command Shift
Command Shift, Accelerating More Women of Color in Tech, is a national consortium of women and allies that advocate for strategies that invest in and inspire the advancement of young women of color in tech careers—with particular focus on women from underrepresented communities and non-traditional pathways. The coalition is composed of business leaders, corporations, nonprofits, and community organizations, who will address the glaring inequalities of women of color in tech. To learn more and join Command Shift, visit https://www.npower.org/commandshift/

About NPower
NPower is a national nonprofit, rooted in community, that is committed to advancing race and gender equity in the tech industry. Through skills training, real world experience, support and mentorship, NPower graduates launch burgeoning careers and a pathway to financial freedom for themselves and their families. Students who enter their free, six-month program earn industry-recognized certifications and graduate with the competencies of an IT professional with one to two years of experience. Eighty-one percent of NPower graduates get a full-time job or continue their education. Not only is NPower changing life trajectories for individuals from vulnerable communities but they are also strengthening the overall competitiveness of U.S. businesses hamstrung by today’s limited pool of IT talent. To learn more about NPower, visit http://www.npower.org.

About Lightcast
Lightcast provides trusted global labor market data, analytics, and expert guidance that empowers communities, corporations, and learning providers to make informed decisions and navigate the increasingly complex world of work. With a database of more than one billion job postings and career profiles, Lightcast provides best-in-class customer service with robust data, clear analysis, and expert guidance on skills, jobs, and opportunities. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and Moscow, Idaho, Lightcast is active in more than 30 countries and has offices in the United Kingdom, Italy, New Zealand, and India. The company is backed by global private equity leader KKR. For more, visit www.lightcast.io.

CONTACT:
Hillary Ovalle
Senior Account Executive
FINN Partners
[email protected]

SOURCE NPower