Nonprofits and small businesses across the country are trying to train more underrepresented people for jobs in the tech sector as the economy enters a recession.

Minorities and women represent a small percentage of the technology workforce and face barriers to entering the growing field. There is a clear need for minorities to improve their technology skills as more jobs move online.

“As a single mom trying to get into the tech industry, I didn’t see a lot of people like me,” Krista Peryer, co-founder and president of The Geek Foundation in Springfield, Mo., said in a phone interview. “There’s just a huge need for people who don’t fit the typical description of a white techie with a college degree.”

Computer science is the fastest-growing profession in the U.S., but those working in the field don’t reflect the country’s demographics. Only 3.1 percent of U.S. tech workers and only about 3 percent of Silicon Valley workers are black. Even black and Hispanic computer scientists from top universities are generally not hired by big tech companies. The five largest tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft) have only about 34.4 percent women in their workforces. Women’s representation in computer jobs has declined since 1990.