San Francisco, Nov 10 (IANS): When it comes to gender equality, Apple has a long way to go. According to the company's annual diversity report only about a third of its employees are women.

The Cupertino-based iPhone maker's annual "Inclusion & Diversity Report" said, as of July 2017, only 32 per cent of its workforce were women, which is the same level as it was in 2016.

The report is the first since Apple hired Denise Young Smith, former head of HR, as new Vice President to oversee the diversity as workplace, a report in CNET on Friday said.

Apple's top leadership too, showed little improvement in terms of hiring women.

"In the past year, the number of women in leadership roles rose one percentage point to 29 per cent. That was after staying flat at 28 per cent from 2014 to 2016," the report added.

When it comes to female representation in the company, Apple, however, said "it is steadily increasing".

"For example, 36 per cent of our employees under 30 are women. That's an increase of five percentage points since 2014," the company said.

Apple is still predominantly run by men who make up 71 per cent of the leaders at the company worldwide.

"White people make up 66 per cent of the leaders at Apple in the US. Only three per cent of Apple's leaders in the US are black, only seven per cent are Hispanic and just one per cent are multi-racial," TechCrunch reported.

When it came to underrepresented minorities, Apple reported a one percentage point increase to 23 per cent.

"From July 2016 to July 2017, half of our new hires in the US were from historically underrepresented groups in tech -- women, Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander," Apple said.

Apple has 130,000 employees worldwide and 83,000 in the US.

"Diversity is our future. Apple is a multi-generational company with employees from 18 to 85.

"As Apple continues to grow, we're highly encouraged that our employees under 30 reflect an increasing diversity," Apple said.