How does labour market history influence the access to hiring interviews?

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence of the effect of labour market status on the current probability to be invited to a hiring interview. The authors compare the effect of periods of unemployment, part-time job and short-term contracts (STCs). Design/methodology/approach Correspondence tests were conducted for accountants and sales assistants. The authors estimate the discrimination components from the response rate of each candidate by the asymptotic least squares method. Findings The authors find that men with a part-time profile suffer discrimination in both professions. Other differences of treatment are specific: for accountants, the authors find that the probability of success decreases with the time spent in unemployment, while for sales assistants the probability of success is smaller with a history of STCs. Originality/value This study compares the effect of different dimensions of career history (part-time versus full-time, permanent versus short-term, unemployment versus employment) for experienced job candidates. It also proposes an alternative way to exploit the design of a correspondence experiment.

Measuring discrimination in the labour market

“…All the paired comparisons cannot be made on all the job adds, but only a part of them. In This case, we need to combine the information from all the possible combinations in a coherent and efficient manner (Duguet et al (2018)). Several types of models can be used: linear or transformed.…”

“…This also shows that process of backward selection is very different from the standard OLS case. For a more detailed presentation, see Duguet et al (2018).…”