Getting a Job: How Certain Characteristics Do (or Don’t) Influence Receiving a Callback

What characteristics influence a job applicant’s chance of receiving a callback from a potential employer? Motivated to understand how certain personal characteristics play out in the job application process, researchers investigate how one’s age, duration of unemployment, and history of working in a low-level interim job affect the likelihood that an applicant will receive a callback after applying for a new job.

A recent study from Henry S. Farber, Dan Silverman, and Till von Wachter looks at callback rates for female applicants to administrative positions who possess four-year college degrees. Controlling for education level and type of job sought, the researchers assess callback rates based on differences in resume characteristics, including age, dates of previous employment, and characteristics of past jobs held. From 2012 to 2014, the researchers sent out fictitious resumes in matched pairs or quadruples to openings posted on two online job boards, and subsequently measured callback rates. The study proceeded in four rounds, differing on several dimensions: whether one or both of the resumes mentioned a randomly-assigned duration of unemployment, an unrelated interim job, the implied age of the job-seeker, or none of these.

In previous literature on the effect of personal characteristics in the job search process, other researchers focus primarily on younger job applications (mostly in their 20s). Conversely, Farber and his collaborators focus on older job applicants from a larger, older age bracket, in their mid-30s to mid-50s. They find that applicants over 50 years old are significantly less likely to receive callbacks  than workers in their 30s or 40s. This is consistent with work based on the Displaced Workers Survey (DWS) data, which show that, for college-educated women in administrative support occupations, unemployment duration is around 10 weeks longer for women ages 45-64 than for women ages 25-44. Researchers find that even substantial, relevant work experience on applicants’ resumes does not balance out the effect of age.

In addition, the study finds that taking a low-skill and unrelated interim job, such as in retail sales, significantly reduces the likelihood of receiving a callback. It is not uncommon, in the aftermath of a job loss, for an unemployed person to take a mismatched or nonstandard job to make ends meet. These findings suggest that employers may screen out job seekers whose most recent employment was in an unrelated field. It appears that, in this particular situation, an unemployed worker is better off remaining unemployed and searching for work rather than being employed in an unrelated job. Alternatively, if an applicant has taken a lower-skill interim job, he may be better off not listing this job on his resume.

However, these findings become less significant when workers are in higher demand. Researchers find that otherwise undesirable worker characteristics, like being older or having an unrelated interim job, are less important when employers are calling back a higher proportion of their applicants. When employers are hungry for workers, they are less selective in who they call back.

This study focuses on how select characteristics influence an experienced, college-educated woman’s chance of receiving callbacks during a job search. How widely the findings can be applied to other populations and nonadministrative career fields remains a question. Receiving a callback is only one step in the application process and does not guarantee a job offer. How do interview performance and personal characteristics influence the final hiring decision? Further research regarding this topic will be important for both better understanding the hiring process and creating workforce development policies that appropriately support both workers and employers.

Article Source: Farber, Henry S., Dan Silverman, and Till von Wachter. “Factors Determining Callbacks to Job Applications by the Unemployed: An Audit Study.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 2015.

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