Google has updated its annual diversity report with new data, claiming “early progress” in its efforts to integrate more women and minorities into its tech-pro ranks. Women constituted 21 percent of Google’s hires over the past year, according to the company’s data, which increased the overall number of women “in technical roles” by 1 percent. Google claims that its campus-outreach efforts are responsible for the increasing percentages. Black and Hispanic employees constituted 2 and 3 percent of the company, respectively; Google claims the hiring rate for those groups exceeds that of the overall hiring rate. “On the technical side, our Black and Hispanic communities grew by 39 percent in the U.S., compared to 28 percent tech growth overall,” read the official Google+ posting on the matter. “Our non-technical teams in the U.S. grew by 17 percent last year, while the Black community in grew by 38 percent and Hispanic by 22 percent in non-tech.” Despite those suggestions of growth, the actual number of employees who fall into those demographics remains strikingly low. Last month, Nancy Lee, Google’s vice president of people operations, wrote in a blog posting that the company would do four things to boost its diversity:

• Prompt employees to take diversity classes
• Expand its hiring programs to more colleges
• Make computer science classes available to more kids
• Encourage business owners to participate more online

Whether those initiatives (and others) will translate into a more diverse employee pool remains to be seen; but in the meantime, Google is claiming progress.