Google's diversity efforts show scant progress

Google CEO Sundar Pichai delivers his keynote address during the Google I/O 2016 developers conference in Mountain View, California May 18, 2016. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

SAN FRANCISCO: Alphabet's Google released data on its two-year-old initiative to create a more diverse US workforce, saying it had more black, Latino and female employees but still lagged its goal of mirroring the population. 

The company released its diversity figures for the first time in 2014 and sparked a conversation among Silicon Valley tech companies that led many of its closest competitors to follow suit.