Lyft releases first diversity report

Ride-hailing company Lyft has released its first ever workforce diversity report. And it's a bit better than some in the tech industry at not only employing white or Asian men, there's still room for improvement.

Why it matters: The lack of diversity in the tech industry has been a hot topic in Silicon Valley over the last couple of years. And while Lyft has generally enjoyed a positive public image as far as its business practices, this report shows that it nevertheless faces challenges similar to the rest of the Valley.

Here's the data, alongside rival Uber's numbers (though note that Uber is a much larger company with a global workforce):

Gender: 42% of Lyft's employees overall and 18% of technical employees are women. About 36% of Uber's employees are women, and just over 15% of technical employees.

Race: While most employees are white or Asian, only 6% are black (nearly 9% at Uber), and 7% are Latino (nearly 6% at Uber). In technical roles, 2% are black and 4% are Latino, compared to 1% and 2% at Uber, respectively.

Leadership: Women make up 36% of Lyft's leadership (22% at Uber), but only 13% among technical leaders (11% at Uber). Additionally, 78% of leaders at Lyft are white or Asian (96% at Uber), though about 5% are Latino (compared to less than 1% at Uber). Its leadership in technical groups have a similar makeup.

Missing: Lyft's report doesn't include data found in some other companies's reports, including new hires, LGBTQ employees, and employee retention — though the latter has become the most elusive stat of all as no competitor has come forward yet to reveal how well it's doing on retaining employees.