IN the United States, people whose family origins trace to a vast swath of the globe are lumped under the demographic category of “Asian.” Members of the group don’t have much in common, with one exception: They tend to be notably absent at the highest levels of corporate America.

Across America’s big firms, Asian Americans get hired at a much higher rate than their proportion of the general U.S. population, which is about 6 percent. The group makes up more than 20 percent of the student body at some of the elite colleges and universities that shoot graduates up the corporate ladder — and a recent lawsuit suggests that percentage could be a lot higher.

And yet Asians are hardly promoted at the same speed as their white colleagues.

“We are the most successful minority,” said Buck Gee, a retired Cisco Systems Inc. vice president and co-author of a new report about Asian leaders in the technology industry for the nonprofit Ascend Leadership. But when the lens turns to C-suites and upper management, “we’re the least successful minority.”

Asians held 47 percent of professional jobs in Silicon Valley tech companies in 2015, slightly more than white people, according to Equal Opportunity Commission data analyzed by Ascend. But at top levels, Asians were far outnumbered, holding 25 percent of executive positions, compared with nearly 70 percent held by white people.

In U.S. private firms, Asians make up 12 percent of professionals and 5 percent of executives, according to EEOC data.

In finance, the numbers tell a similar story. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is typical: a quarter of professional employees are Asian, but fewer than 11 percent of executives and less than 1 percent of the management committee are.

Leslie Shribman, a spokeswoman for Goldman, said the company’s success depends on attracting diverse employees and pointed to programs that support Asians, including one designed to “develop the next generation” of Asian leaders. Representatives of other U.S. financial institutions also said they were keen on increasing Asian numbers.

Citigroup Inc. spokeswoman Elizabeth Kelly said the bank had recently revamped its diversity strategy to recruit and develop more Asians and members of other underrepresented groups.

The absence of Asians in senior leadership poses a challenge to advocates for racial and ethnic diversity within big firms. The lack of black people and Latinos in upper-level jobs is often described as “a pipeline problem” and in response, some companies have increased their recruiting efforts with black and Latino college graduates. (SD-Agencies)