Hiring discrimination based on national origin and competition between the employed and unemployed job seekers

This study uses the findings of a test carried out by correspondence in order to assess separately the potential hiring effects of North African origin and signaling of employment and unemployment in the French construction sector. We constructed four jobseeker profiles, each representing a particular situation with respect to national origin and job status, and we sent 1204 resumés in reply to 301 job vacancies advertised from mid April to mid September 2011 in Paris and its suburbs. We find evidences of significant hiring discrimination against applicants of North African origin, regardless of their job status. Signaling unemployment seems to be penalizing only for North Africans applicants. We cannot however affirm that unemployed applicants are more penalized by their national origin than the employed ones.