19 October 2009 – Publication of DWP research report 607: A test of racial discrimination in recruitment practice

Research commissioned by the DWP led Ethnic Minority Employment Task Force has found that there is significant discrimination in recruitment based on whether a person has a name indicating they are of ‘white British’ origin or a name indicating they are from an ethnic minority.

• The research was carried out by submitting three very similar applications to actual vacancies. One of the three had a ‘white British’, name with the other two from different ethnic minority groups, names were randomly allocated to different applications.
• Three applications were sent to 987 advertised job vacancies giving a total of 2,961 applications.
• When the sets of applications with positive responses were analysed, 68% of 'white British' applicants received a positive response compared with 39% of ethnic minority applicants. Therefore there is a 29% difference in favour of ‘white British’ applicants. This difference is statistically significant.
• For every nine applications sent by a white applicant, an equally good applicant with an ethnic minority name has to send sixteen to obtain a positive response.
• The public sector vacancies included in this study, which usually required formal application forms, did not discriminate at this stage of recruitment.  This suggests that discrimination can be reduced by the application of suitable policies.
• The need for this research was based on the persistent and unexplained gap in the employment rate between the ethnic minority population and the population of Great Britain, still13.8 percentage points in quarter 2 2009.
• The research was commissioned after the Business Commission on Race Equality recommended “matched CV” testing to measure progress towards eliminating the ethnic minority employment gap.
• The Chancellor of the Exchequer accepted the recommendation in Autumn 2007, and the Ethnic Minority Employment Task Force will be reporting back to the Chancellor annually, starting in Winter 2009
• The research was overseen by a steering group which included representatives from the Confederation of British Industry, the Equality and Human rights Commission and the Trade Union Congress.

Notes to Editors

• The research was undertaken by the National Centre for Social Research.
• The fieldwork for the research was undertaken between November 2008 and May 2009.

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