Whom do employers want? The role of recent employment and unemployment status and age

We use a résumé audit study to investigate the role of employment and unemployment histories in callbacks to job applications. We find that applicants with 52 weeks of unemployment have a lower callback rate than those with shorter spells. There is no relationship, however, between spell length an...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Farberfarber, H.S (Author), Herbst, C.M (Author), Silverman, D. (Author), von Wachter, T. (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Chicago Press 2019
Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
Description
Summary:We use a résumé audit study to investigate the role of employment and unemployment histories in callbacks to job applications. We find that applicants with 52 weeks of unemployment have a lower callback rate than those with shorter spells. There is no relationship, however, between spell length and callback among applicants with spells of 24 weeks or less. We also find that both younger and older applicants have a lower callback probability than prime-aged applicants. Finally, we find that applicants who are employed at the time of application have a lower callback rate than do unemployed applicants. © 2019 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
ISBN:0734306X (ISSN)
DOI:10.1086/700184