Zeack News

Natasha Chaku

Melbourne, June 18 : A new study has revealed that people with foreign or indigenous-sounding name have less chance of landing a job in Australia.



However, applicants with Italian sounding name or if they are Melbourne-based, it can prove to be of an advantage.



The study was undertaken by Australian National University researchers Alison Booth, Andrew Leigh and Elena Vargonova who sent out 4000 fake job applications to employers advertising on the internet for entry-level hospitality, data entry, customer service and sales jobs, changing only the racial origin of the supposed applicants' names.



The study revealed that applicants with Chinese names were the least preferred having only a one-in-five chance of getting interview calls compared to applicants with Anglo-Saxon names whose chances exceeded one-in-three.



Typically a Chinese-named applicant would need to put in 68 per cent more applications than an Anglo-named applicant to get the same number of calls back and a Middle Eastern-named applicant needed 64 per cent more, an indigenous-named applicant 35 per cent more and an Italian-named applicant 12 per cent more, the study published in 'The Age' said.



However, the results varied by city.



Taking a comparison of other cities the study said, Sydney employers were generally more discriminatory than those in Melbourne or Brisbane, except when it came to indigenous names, where they were more accepting. Ze