A recent article<\/a> on the Workforce Management website points out that job openings in America have decreased by 36% since May of 2008.\u00a0 There are a lot of obvious consequences related to this fact.\u00a0 But the article goes on to consider a couple of the less obvious by-products.<\/p>\nThe first is concerned with race:<\/p>\n
The recession is replicating racial disparities documented in earlier downturns. In June [2009], the official unemployment rate hit 14.7 percent for blacks and 12.2 percent for Hispanics, compared with 8.7 percent for whites.\u00a0 Racial disparities in the unemployment rates appear across all levels of educational attainment. When employers can generate large numbers of applicants from limited outreach or even a single source, the pool of candidates becomes increasingly homogeneous.<\/em><\/p>\nThe second is about perception:<\/p>\n
“The concept of passive candidates is fiction,” [says John Younger, CEO of recruiting firm Accolo]. “We\u2019re all temporaries. In normal times, if a candidate has been out of work for six months, there might be an assumption that something is wrong with the candidate. Today, there are world-class experts in every function who are not working, but there is still a preference for employed candidates<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\nI added the italics in both these quotes to emphasize what I think are important points.\u00a0 While it might make sense to reduce the volume of applications when there are too few people to review them, the way<\/em> that\u2019s done can reflect personal and\/or institutional biases toward (or away from) particular groups.\u00a0 Bias can affect choices regardless of intention, and may remain invisible when busy people are just trying to function effectively under challenging circumstances.<\/p>\nStill another problem is surfaced in the Workflow Management article.\u00a0 Accolo\u2014which is a pretty big operation\u2014aggressively pursues diversity among the applicants it presents to its clients.\u00a0 However, according to the examples offered by Younger, that isn\u2019t doing much good.\u00a0 He reports using both broad-reach sites (Monster, Yahoo, Craigslist, etc.) and also niche boards (targeted toward minorities, older candidates, and women) in an attempt to achieve a more diverse candidate pool, yet the percentage of black and Hispanic applicants is still very low.<\/p>\n
The article offers no speculation on this point, but I\u2019d be very curious to understand why the groups that are disproportionately unemployed are also the groups that are disproportionately not applying<\/em> for jobs.\u00a0 There could be a skewing effect based on the types of jobs being offered in the Accolo examples\u2014but there could also be other factors at work . . .\u00a0 \u00a0A higher level of discouragement among minorities?\u00a0 A higher rate of migration from employment to self-employment?\u00a0 Subtle disincentives from employers\/recruiters?<\/p>\nObviously, the article raises more questions than it answers.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll add one more query to the mix:\u00a0 Are some companies changing their websites and\/or their messaging to discourage applicants, and thereby reduce the quantity of candidates to be managed?\u00a0 I have no idea, but it seems like something worth wondering about.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Thanks to DrBacchus<\/a> for the excellent image of scissors “at work.”)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recent article on the Workforce Management website points out that job openings in America have decreased by 36% since May of 2008.\u00a0 There are a lot of obvious consequences related to this fact.\u00a0 But the article goes on to consider a couple of the less obvious by-products. The first is concerned with race: The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,25],"tags":[2111,1397,5901],"class_list":{"0":"post-29630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-best-practices","7":"category-careers","8":"tag-diversity","9":"tag-passive-candidates","10":"tag-recruiting-bias","11":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n
Cut on the Bias? Race and (Un)employment . . . - Corporate Eye<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/bias-race-and-unemployment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cut on the Bias? Race and (Un)employment . . . - Corporate Eye\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent article on the Workforce Management website points out that job openings in America have decreased by 36% since May of 2008.\u00a0 There are a lot of obvious consequences related to this fact.\u00a0 But the article goes on to consider a couple of the less obvious by-products. 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![\"Scissors](\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Scissors-1.jpg\" "\\"Scissors")
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