Discrimination in Hiring and Anonymous CVs in France (CV Anonymes)PDF version
Race and class discrimination continue to be pervasive in countries throughout the world, prompting some governments to enact policies that try to promote equal employment opportunities for all citizens. Employers can gather information about the race or class of job applicants several ways, most obviously if their name or address signals that they come from a certain neighborhood or ethnic background. A past evaluation by J-PAL affiliated professors has shown that names that suggest a certain race or ethnicity negatively affect a candidate’s chances on the job market, but there have been fewer evaluations of how equal opportunity policies actually affect employment opportunities for marginalized groups.
France has a large population of immigrants from West and North Africa, many of whom live in poor neighborhoods. In general, minority populations have higher levels of unemployment than the general population: in 2009 , the unemployment rate among non-immigrants was 8.4 percent, while it was 16 percent among immigrants. There may be many reasons for this stark difference - educational levels, cultural norms on work, and race-based employment discrimination could all be potential causes. If employers are trying to avoid hiring candidates from lower socio-economic groups or minorities, then resumes containing candidate names and addresses may offer a way for them to identify such applicants. A law was recently passed (though it has not yet been enforced) that mandates the removal of candidate names and addresses from all job application materials submitted in France, making them anonymous. This policy is meant to combat the barriers that many immigrants and minorities are thought to face in finding employment.
In collaboration with the French employment agency Pôle Emploi, researchers evaluated whether making resumes anonymous can actually reduce discrimination. Recruiters working with Pôle Emploi to find employees were asked to participate in the experiment, and those who agreed were randomly allocated into a treatment and a comparison group. In the treatment group, resumes coming from the employment agency were made anonymous by removing both the candidates name and address. In the comparison group, resumes coming from the employment agency included this information. It is important to note that in both treatment and comparison groups, employers were receiving resumes from other sources than Pôle Emploi.
Researchers collected information on the hiring outcomes of 1,000 job offers that had been randomly assigned to the treatment and comparison group, as well as the job offers that had been made. They also examined hiring practices among employers who refused to take part in the experiment, and some who had not been asked to participate. Recruiters, and a random sample of candidates, were also administered a survey by phone.
Evaluation ongoing; results forthcoming.
