Scientists have leveraged big data from recruitment platforms and machine learning to study hiring discrimination. They find that discrimination against immigrants depends, among other things, on the time of day, and that both men and women face discrimination.
This type of discrimination violates the principle of equal opportunities. For those affected, this may have long-term disadvantages, such as longer unemployment or lower wages. That’s why it is crucial to understand who experiences discrimination and why.
Foreign origin has a stronger negative impact towards noon and in the evening—when recruiters review CVs faster.
The research team collaborated with the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) to gain access to anonymized data from Job-Room, one of the largest recruitment platforms in Switzerland. Job-Room contains profiles of more than 150,000 job seekers.