Making the Cut: Hiring Decisions, Bias, and the Consequences of Nonstandard, Mismatched, and Precarious Employment
An in-depth look at how employers today perceive and evaluate job applicants with nonstandard or precarious employment histories

Millions of workers today labor in nontraditional situations involving part-time work, temporary agency employment, and skills underutilization or face the precariousness of long-term unemployment. To date, research has largely focused on how these experiences shape workers’ well-being, rather than how hiring agents perceive and treat job applicants who have moved through these positions. Shifting the focus from workers to hiring agents, Making the Cut explores how key gatekeepers—HR managers, recruiters, and talent acquisition specialists—evaluate workers with nonstandard, mismatched, or precarious employment experience. Factoring in the social groups to which workers belong—such as their race and gender—David Pedulla shows how workers get jobs, how the hiring process unfolds, who makes the cut, and who does not.

Drawing on a field experiment examining hiring decisions in four occupational groups and in-depth interviews with hiring agents in the United States, Pedulla documents and unpacks three important discoveries. Hiring professionals extract distinct meanings from different types of employment experiences; the effects of nonstandard, mismatched, and precarious employment histories for workers’ job outcomes are not all the same; and the race and gender of workers intersect with their employment histories to shape which workers get called back for jobs. Indeed, hiring professionals use group-based stereotypes to weave divergent narratives or “stratified stories” about workers with similar employment experiences. The result is a complex set of inequalities in the labor market.

Looking at bias and discrimination, social exclusion in the workplace, and the changing nature of work, Making the Cut probes the hiring process and offers a clearer picture of the underpinnings of getting a job in the new economy.

1134362881
Making the Cut: Hiring Decisions, Bias, and the Consequences of Nonstandard, Mismatched, and Precarious Employment
An in-depth look at how employers today perceive and evaluate job applicants with nonstandard or precarious employment histories

Millions of workers today labor in nontraditional situations involving part-time work, temporary agency employment, and skills underutilization or face the precariousness of long-term unemployment. To date, research has largely focused on how these experiences shape workers’ well-being, rather than how hiring agents perceive and treat job applicants who have moved through these positions. Shifting the focus from workers to hiring agents, Making the Cut explores how key gatekeepers—HR managers, recruiters, and talent acquisition specialists—evaluate workers with nonstandard, mismatched, or precarious employment experience. Factoring in the social groups to which workers belong—such as their race and gender—David Pedulla shows how workers get jobs, how the hiring process unfolds, who makes the cut, and who does not.

Drawing on a field experiment examining hiring decisions in four occupational groups and in-depth interviews with hiring agents in the United States, Pedulla documents and unpacks three important discoveries. Hiring professionals extract distinct meanings from different types of employment experiences; the effects of nonstandard, mismatched, and precarious employment histories for workers’ job outcomes are not all the same; and the race and gender of workers intersect with their employment histories to shape which workers get called back for jobs. Indeed, hiring professionals use group-based stereotypes to weave divergent narratives or “stratified stories” about workers with similar employment experiences. The result is a complex set of inequalities in the labor market.

Looking at bias and discrimination, social exclusion in the workplace, and the changing nature of work, Making the Cut probes the hiring process and offers a clearer picture of the underpinnings of getting a job in the new economy.

24.95 In Stock
Making the Cut: Hiring Decisions, Bias, and the Consequences of Nonstandard, Mismatched, and Precarious Employment

Making the Cut: Hiring Decisions, Bias, and the Consequences of Nonstandard, Mismatched, and Precarious Employment

by David Pedulla
Making the Cut: Hiring Decisions, Bias, and the Consequences of Nonstandard, Mismatched, and Precarious Employment

Making the Cut: Hiring Decisions, Bias, and the Consequences of Nonstandard, Mismatched, and Precarious Employment

by David Pedulla

Paperback

$24.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    In stock. Ships in 1-2 days.
  • PICK UP IN STORE

    Your local store may have stock of this item.

Related collections and offers


Overview

An in-depth look at how employers today perceive and evaluate job applicants with nonstandard or precarious employment histories

Millions of workers today labor in nontraditional situations involving part-time work, temporary agency employment, and skills underutilization or face the precariousness of long-term unemployment. To date, research has largely focused on how these experiences shape workers’ well-being, rather than how hiring agents perceive and treat job applicants who have moved through these positions. Shifting the focus from workers to hiring agents, Making the Cut explores how key gatekeepers—HR managers, recruiters, and talent acquisition specialists—evaluate workers with nonstandard, mismatched, or precarious employment experience. Factoring in the social groups to which workers belong—such as their race and gender—David Pedulla shows how workers get jobs, how the hiring process unfolds, who makes the cut, and who does not.

Drawing on a field experiment examining hiring decisions in four occupational groups and in-depth interviews with hiring agents in the United States, Pedulla documents and unpacks three important discoveries. Hiring professionals extract distinct meanings from different types of employment experiences; the effects of nonstandard, mismatched, and precarious employment histories for workers’ job outcomes are not all the same; and the race and gender of workers intersect with their employment histories to shape which workers get called back for jobs. Indeed, hiring professionals use group-based stereotypes to weave divergent narratives or “stratified stories” about workers with similar employment experiences. The result is a complex set of inequalities in the labor market.

Looking at bias and discrimination, social exclusion in the workplace, and the changing nature of work, Making the Cut probes the hiring process and offers a clearer picture of the underpinnings of getting a job in the new economy.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780691241432
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication date: 08/09/2022
Pages: 208
Product dimensions: 6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

David S. Pedulla is associate professor of sociology at Stanford University.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

1 Hiring in the New Economy 1

2 Nonstandard, Mismatched, and Precarious Work 20

3 Making Meaning of Employment Histories: Signals, Uncertainty, and the Need for a Narrative 38

4 Inclusion and Exclusion in Hiring: The Varied Effects of Nonstandard, Mismatched, and Precarious Employment Histories 67

5 "What Type of a Grown Man Doesn't Have a Full-Time Job?": Gender and Part-Time Work 86

6 "Maybe It's More Natural for Them to Have Been Out of Work for a Little While": Race and Unemployment 103

7 "They Do a Pretty Thorough Background Check": Tha Employment and African American Men 113

8 Conclusion 125

Methodological Appendix 140

Notes 153

References 171

Index 187

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Making the Cut provides compelling evidence about how hiring works and who gets job opportunities today. Bringing together interviews with hiring managers and experimental findings of biased hiring processes, this important and accessible book will speak to students, scholars, those who are hiring, and those looking for work."—Erin L. Kelly, MIT Sloan School of Management

"Analyzing how job applicants with nonstandard, mismatched, or precarious work histories fare in the labor market, Making the Cut demonstrates that applicants’ skills are only part of the interviewing and hiring story. This is essential reading for all those interested in labor market inequalities, stereotyping, and the growing uncertainties of work, as well as a useful guide for workers navigating nontraditional jobs in the gig economy."—Lauren Rivera, author of Pedigree

"Making the Cut examines the degree to which job histories that involve part-time work, temporary agency employment, skills underutilization, and long-term unemployment affect the likelihood that job applicants in these categories will have difficulties in the hiring process. Logical and reasoned, this fine book occupies a unique niche and will be useful to readers in all of these situations."—Arne L. Kalleberg, author of Precarious Lives

"This illuminating book adds to one of the most important strands of research in work and employment: the rise of different forms of contingent employment and whether having been employed on a contingent basis affects one’s future employment. Examining dimensions of race and gender and bringing to life eye-opening quantitative data, Pedulla touches on key aspects of the hiring process, making them comprehensible to readers."—Vicki Smith, coauthor of The Good Temp

"This well-written book looks at inequality in employment-hiring outcomes across sociodemographic groups of job seekers, particularly in the challenges faced by those with nonstandard employment histories who are endeavoring to find full-time employment. Pedulla’s findings are novel and promise to innovate in the areas of labor market stratification, employment discrimination, employment relations, and human resource management."—Daniel B. Cornfield, Vanderbilt University

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews