The results of the 2017 NAMIC and WICT Industry Diversity Survey, a study that is conducted every two years to measure diversity demographics within the cable workforce, were released this morning. This year, the companies that participated represented 67.5 percent of the industry.
Highlights of the survey included an increase of people of color in the industry over the past two years by over one percent (from 39 percent to 40 percent) across almost all levels for operators and programmers, while the hire rate for people of color exceeded the rate for whites by approximately 12 percentage points. The percentage of people of color in cable (40 percent) also exceeded the national benchmark (38 percent), as did the percentage of people of color in executive and senior-level management roles (23 percent) when compared to the national average (14 percent).
Women in the workforce remained constant at 34 percent, though the amount of women in executive and senior positions increased by 5.5 percent since the last survey. As Maria Brennan, president & CEO of WICT, told us earlier this year, “What we want to work on over the next five years is to keep raising women up to that clout level.” She believes this is possible by 2030. “So we do think gender parity is achievable, particularly if the companies continue to participate in surveys like PAR and take to heart the results of their score cards and the recommendations that come out of that in regards to their practices.”
When it comes to implementing diversity policies and practices, just about 60 percent of organizations offered diversity and inclusion training. This includes practices around inclusion of LGBTQ employees, veterans, and people with disabilities.
While much work remains to be done in order to close the gaps, it's encouraging to witness these strides being made to diversify each sector of the internet and television workforce, and nowhere is that more evident and visible than at the discussions and celebrations held this week in honor of cable’s Diversity Week. Across the nation, millions of people make up the cable workforce family in all sorts of communities, cities and regions. We look forward to continuing to expand and to include the many different voices, faces and perspectives that make up our country.
Check out the graphic below to see how different segments of the cable workforce fare in comparison to national benchmarks.
