The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) has released data indicating that American newspapers showed a very slim increase in newsroom employees last year (from an estimated 41,500 in 2009 to 41,600 in 2010), “finally halting a three-year exodus of journalists.”

It’s not a huge increase, but we’ll take whatever good news we can get!

But for minority newsroom employees, things aren’t quite so rosy. The percentage of minorities in newsrooms, according to ASNE, currently totals 12.79 percent (minorities make up 36 percent of the total U.S. population). This is a decline of .47 percentage points from a year ago, and marks the third consecutive year that the percentage of African-American, Asian, Latino, and Native American journalists has declined in U.S. newsrooms.

It seems smaller papers have a greater problem in this regard. ASNE reports that 60 percent of minorities work at newspapers with circulations exceeding 100,000.