Apple makes progress on diversity

Apple has improved its company's diversity with more black, Hispanic and Asian people among its workers.

Apple has improved its diversity with more black, Hispanic and Asian people among its workers. (AAP)

Apple Inc has made progress on boosting gender and racial diversity in its US workforce, a regulatory document filed by the iPhone maker shows.

Several Silicon Valley companies have been criticised for the lack of diversity and have been facing increasing pressure to diversify their largely male, mostly white workforces.

Apple added 1,475 black employees in the 13 months ending August 1, 31 per cent more than a year earlier, the filing showed on Tuesday.

The company added 24 per cent more Hispanic workers and 29 per cent more Asians, compared with numbers reported in a July 2014 filing.

Black employees formed 8.7 per cent of the total US workforce as of August, rising slightly from eight per cent in the previous period.

About 30 per cent of Apple's US employees were females as of August, compared with 28.7 per cent.

Of the 103 executive and senior management positions, 86 were held by white employees, 12 by Asians, four by black employees and one by a hispanic, the document filed with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission showed.

Overall, Apple had 72,494 US employees as of August, up 21.1 per cent from the previous period.

Twitter, in its most recent report on worker demographics, said 66 per cent of its global workforce was male and 59 per cent of US employees were white.