Discrimination and Job Loss
Posted April 20th, 2011
It’s bad enough being unemployed; now new research shows that employers tend to discriminate against hiring unemployed persons….because they’re unemployed!
In fact, recent research conducted by the State University of New York-Stony Brook and UCLA found that unemployed individuals in the U.S. are discriminated against in ways that are unrelated to their skills as well as how/why they lost their previous job.
The research consisted of recruiting a cross section of Americans online and then asking them to look at fake job candidates. Researchers found that participants rated “applicants” who were “unemployed” lower than “employed” candidates.
In one instance, participants were asked to rate the résumé of a job applicant. Half of the participants were told the “applicant” currently had a job while the other half were told the “applicant” was unemployed. Research participants then ranked the “applicant” on different personal qualities.
Even though all participants had the same résumé, they believed that the “jobless” candidate was less competent and proactive than that of the “employed” applicant. Study participants also said they would be less likely to hire or even interview the “unemployed” applicant.
Results were similar when participants viewed a videotaped job interview. Half were told the applicant was employed while the other half were told the candidate had no job. Study participants thought the “employed” candidate was more impressive than the “unemployed” applicant.
Researchers also said that the how or why the unemployed applicant lost his or her job had little impact on participants’ perceptions. That is, the fact that the unemployed “applicant” who left a job on his or her own volition was looked upon just as negatively as someone who had been fired or laid off. The only time an unemployed individual wasn’t looked down upon was when the circumstances surrounding the unemployment was perceived to be totally out of the individual’s hands, such as an employer going completely out of business.
Researchers said that economists had believed that long-term unemployment was because of a job seeker’s perceived or assumed deterioration of skills or laziness when it came to looking for jobs. Their research apparently shows that there’s a real stigma to being unemployed and that the longer an individual remains unemployed, the harder that stigma will be to overcome.
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