Employers less likely to interview 'non-white' applicants

Published on Monday 19 October 2009 21:57

PEOPLE with African and Asian names face discrimination by employers when they apply for jobs, according to new research.

A team from the National Centre for Social Research sent thousands of fake CVs to companies based in Glasgow, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Leeds, London and Manchester.

They used three different fictional identities to discover how jobseekers with different names were treated.

The survey, which was commissioned by the Department for Work and Pension (DWP) and published yesterday, used three fake identities – Nazia Mahmood, Mariam Namagembe and Alison Taylor.

The "candidates" were all given similar experience and qualifications.

The research showed the applicant who appeared to be white had to send nine applications before being offered an interview; the other candidates had to send 16 applications to get a similar response.

Applications were sent for 987 vacancies between November 2008 and May 2009.

Six per cent of the applications were sent to employers in Glasgow, who were found to be marginally less discriminatory than the UK as a whole.

The jobs applied for included accountants, IT staff, care workers and sales assistants.

Employment minister Jim Knight said: "This research clearly shows that some employers are discriminating when it comes to choosing staff. This has no place in a modern society and racial discrimination cannot be allowed to continue."

He added: "We are determined to stop this scourge on society – the Equality Bill will strengthen our hand and we are already preparing to publish specific plans for dealing with discrimination in the workplace later this year."