EBOOK
Making the Cut
Hiring Decisions, Bias, and the Consequences of Nonstandard, Mismatched, and Precarious Employment
David Pedulla5
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About
"Winner of the Richard A. Lester Prize for the Outstanding Book in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics, Industrial Relations Section of Princeton University" David S. Pedulla is associate professor of sociology at Stanford University.
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. "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 G
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. "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 G