Written as editor of the New Statesman’s NS Tech and first published here.

LinkedIn’s latest Global Recruiting Trends report identifies just how far we still have to go on getting gender equality in STEM professions.

Not only do women only make up 24 per cent of new hires, as you head up the career ladder, that drops to 19 per cent among managers and 17 per cent of directors.

The STEM sector with the largest number of women is research, while the area with the lowest is engineering.

LinkedIn used data from the millions of people who use its platform, as well as surveying more than 6,500 members, to build out the picture for its latest report.

The research found that women are more likely than their male peers to be actively looking for work or thinking of leaving their current roles within a year.

Bad interactions with a boss or teammate was the top reason for this, followed by a long commute and then a “frustrating day at work”.

The culture, employees’ experiences and their work having a purpose were key reasons for both sets of workers to want to join a company – but these were all more important for women.

LinkedIn’s recruitment arm, which conducted the research, also looks in detail about the processes that companies now say they have in place to make recruitment better.

Hiring from employee recommendations continues to grow, as well as the desire to retain good staff rather than look elsewhere –  but demand is far outstripping the budgets spent on finding the right people.

You can find the full report here.