U.S. employers discriminating against names: study

Researchers say resumes with white-sounding names were 30 per cent more likely to elicit a response than those with black-sounding names

A study out of the University of Chicago and M.I.T. shows employers might be discriminating against job applicants based solely on the name on the resume.

According to the New York Times, researchers selected 1,300 help-wanted ads from newspapers in Boston and Chicago and submitted numerous fake resumes. They randomly assigned the first names on the resumes, choosing from names common among white people and names common among black people.

Nearly 5,000 applications were submitted from mid-2001 to mid-2002 using names like Kristen and Tamika and Brad and Tyrone. Last names common to the racial group were also assigned and all the resumes had similar experience, education and skills so employers had no reason to distinguish among them. The researchers kept track of which candidates were selected for job interviews.

The result? Applicants with white-sounding names were 30 per cent more likely to be called for interviews than those with black-sounding names. According to the study, interviews were requested for 10.1 per cent of applicants with white-sounding names while 6.7 per cent of black-sounding names received requests.

How individual names fared

•Aisha: 2.2 per cent

•Keisha: 3.8 per cent

•Tamika: 5.4 per cent

•Kenya: 9.1 per cent

•Latonya: 9.1 per cent

•Ebony: 10.5 per cent

Other findings

•The likelihood of being called for an interview rises sharply with an applicant’s credentials, like experience and honours, for those with white-sounding names but much less for those with black-sounding names.

•Within racial groups, application with male or female names were equally likely to result in calls for interviews, providing little evidence of discrimination based on sex.

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