It’s no secret that Silicon Valley has a diversity problem. That became evident after the disclosure of workforce-diversity statistics last year at Google Inc., Facebook Inc., and other tech firms, which showed that some of the biggest corporate names—and wealth generators—in the U.S. employ small numbers of African-American and Hispanic professionals and a disproportionate number of male employees.

Those numbers may be obscuring a more nuanced picture of the tech labor market, one that shows strong progress for racial minorities, though not for women, according to a paper to be released Thursday by the Progressive Policy Institute.

The Washington think tank found that in 2014, black and Hispanic workers comprised more than 12% of total tech employment, compared to 9% in 2009.

The number of black college graduates in tech jobs grew by 58% during that time, with large increases among computer programmers, software developers, database administrators, and network and computer systems analysts. Hispanic employment in tech jobs rose by 103%. Read More »

“Jobs that are considered creative today may not be so tomorrow,” says Creativity versus Robots, a report co-authored by Oxford University academics. Read More »

From the 20-page cellphone contract to the five-pound employee handbook, even the simple things seem to be getting more complicated.

Companies have been complicating things for themselves, too—analyzing hundreds of factors when making decisions, or consulting reams of data to resolve every budget dilemma. But those requirements might be wasting time and muddling priorities.

So argues Donald Sull, a lecturer at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has also worked for McKinsey & Co. and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC. In the book Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World, out this week from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, he and Kathleen Eisenhardt of Stanford University claim that straightforward guidelines lead to better results than complex formulas.

Mr. Sull recently spoke with At Work about what companies can do to simplify, and why five basic rules can beat a 50-item checklist. Read More »

Updated on April 28

More news for the class of 2015: not only are job prospects looking up—so, too, is pay.

One third of nearly 2,200 employers surveyed by job-search site CareerBuilder said they will offer new grads higher pay than last year, according to a report out Thursday. Roughly one in four said they will pay entry-level employees at least $50,000, the survey said.

The majority of employers (57%) said they expect to make no change in salary offers, and 10% expect starting salaries to dip, according to the survey. Read More »

The world’s largest private-equity firm says it wants to become a better place for working mothers.

Blackstone Group LP said Wednesday that it is extending its maternity leave benefits from 12 weeks at full pay to 16 weeks. The move, announced in a memo to employees, is designed in part to help the company compete for talented Wall Street women.

“The financial services industry has historically struggled to attract and retain women,” Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman said in the memo, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “By having strong policies in place that support working mothers…we hope to help make asset management a more attractive industry for women.”

The cost of the extended maternity leave will be pocket change for Blackstone, which has been positioning itself as a top career destination for the best and brightest, akin to Apple Inc. and Google Inc. Read More »

Welcome to Ask the CEO, in which chief executives take time out from running companies to solve your career problems. 

Alan Masarek is the CEO of Vonage Holdings Corp. He joined the communications services company last November from Google Inc., which in 2012 acquired a technology startup Masarek co-founded and led. The 54-year-old Masarek competes in triathlons in his spare time, and in a recent interview, he talked about balancing work and training for an Ironman event, which comprises a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run.

Q: When can I find time to exercise when I’m working long hours? Read More »

Among the hiring myths that took root during the recession, here’s a particularly tenacious one: A person with a college degree makes a better employee than a person with a high-school diploma.

A September 2014 report by labor market analysis firm Burning Glass Technologies documented pervasive “credential creep” in positions that historically didn’t call for a bachelor’s degree but now are more likely to require one. For example, Burning Glass found a 21% credential gap for computer helpdesk workers, meaning 39% of workers in that field hold a BA but 60% of current job postings require one.

Employers use a college degree as a proxy for many things—critical thinking or communication skills, technical prowess, or simply the ability to follow a goal through to the end.

But what if they’re wrong, at least some of the time? Read More »

Workers are having trouble staying on task. Crammed together with colleagues in open floor plans, lured into procrastination by social media, and inundated by emails, the modern corporate workday for many is an eight-hour parade of distractions, punctuated by lunch.

The length of time office workers focus on a computer screen before shifting their attention dropped to 1 minute, 15 seconds in 2012—down from 2 minutes, 18 seconds in 2008, according to research from Gloria Mark, a professor in the department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. Another study published by Mark this year tracked workers for five days, discovering that, on average, they visited Facebook 21 times a day and checked email 74 times.

That has left some companies struggling to keep workers’ eyes on their work. But one firm’s misfortune is another’s business opportunity. Enter Steelcase Inc., which claims its new line of office furniture can eliminate distractions and keep workers focused. Read More »

With the 2015 Boston Marathon coming Monday, the world’s attention will be on the 30,000 runners as they endure the highs and lows of running 26.2 miles.

Hiding your shortcomings is virtually impossible in long-distance running. More than in any other athletic endeavor, a marathon forces you to confront weaknesses head on, exposing your limitations as well as your strengths. That’s something that marathon-running corporate leaders know well, a group that includes T-Mobile chief executive John Legere.

Dambisa Moyo, an adviser to big businesses including Barclays PLC and soon to be two-time marathoner (she’ll be in the pack in London on April 26) explains what corporate leaders can learn from a long run. Read More »

Expats are good at preparing for their next exciting post, whether it’s in Burundi or Boston. They’ll study the language, find the best place to live, read up on the food, the climate, and the currency. But the deep, dark secret of the expat experience is that coming home – repatriation – can be even harder than leaving. Read More »