Diversity is still a big challenge for the PR industry. The typical PR employee is female, well-educated, relatively young, and astonishingly white, according to a new report. The study by Holmes Report also found that as one looks up the corporate ladder, more men hold the highest paying jobs and are more likely to be CEOs.

Can we ever have diversity in PR?

In five years, there has been a mere 1% increase in the representation of Asian and black people in PR. In the UK, the BAME community make up about 10% of the population. This community has a combined disposable income of £300 billion and a spending power of £46 billion, but, very few PR professionals come from these communities.

Last year, the PRCA published a census that revealed that 91% of those surveyed identified as “white British” or “other white”, while only 3% identified as “Asian” and 2% as “black”.

The PR diversity issue goes beyond ethnicity. It’s also about gender- female representation at the top. It’s also about taking on board professionals with different professional backgrounds. Today, 67% of employees have degrees in the traditional areas of communications, PR, marketing, journalism or liberal arts. PR is too comfortable with the status quo.

It needs to come out of its comfort zone. There could be no better PR than that.

The full report, Portrait of a PR professional, is available at holmesreport.com.