Despite efforts to diversify its employment, Google workers are still overwhelmingly white and Asian men.

In demographic data issued on Monday, it was revealed that only 18 per cent of technology jobs in the company worldwide are held by women, up one per cent on last year. Ethnically, Google workers in the US are 59 per cent white and 35 per cent Asian.

According to the Guardian, the slight bump in female employment is a result of deliberate policy change - with Google hiring women in 21 per cent of its technology roles in 2014.

In the US, Google employees are two per cent black and three per cent Hispanic. In the US workforce as a whole, the numbers are 12 and 14 per cent respectively.

“Early indications show promise but we know that with an organisation our size, year-on-year growth and meaningful change is going to take time,” said Nancy Lee, Google’s vice-president of people operations.

Google released demographic data last year for the first time, and was highly embarrassed at the results. It's far from alone however, with many Silicon Valley firms like Apple and Facebook seen as boys' clubs with minimal minority employment.

To rectify the issue, many have been investing in pushing more women and minorities towards science and mathematics in schools, as well as increasing the recruitment of graduate minorities.

Prominent civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, who has pushed for greater diversity in tech businesses, spoke encouragingly in a statement:

“Tech companies must move from the aspiration of ‘doing better’ to concrete actionable hiring to move the needle. We aim to change the flow of the river.”