Race Bias in Hiring2004n = 5,000
White-sounding names +50% more callbacks vs Black-sounding names (AER 2004, n~5K)
White-sounding names (Emily, Greg) received 50% more callbacks than otherwise-identical resumes with Black-sounding names (Lakisha, Jamal): 9.65% vs 6.45% callback rate in a 5,000-resume audit across Chicago and Boston employers.
Primary source
Bertrand & Mullainathan, American Economic Review 94(4)
https://www.nber.org/papers/w9873Published 2004 — sample n = 5,000 — compiled by JobCannon Research.
Why this stat matters
This figure belongs to the race bias in hiringvertical of JobCannon's ongoing review of hiring, AI, and career-outcome research. We track it because it is one of the few primary-source estimates with a published sample, methodology, or legal record. Cite the original source first; this page exists to make the figure easy to find and link to.
Related stats
- 9.5% Black callback gap; 20% of firms drive half of it (n=83K+)Kline, Rose & Walters, NBER WP 29053 — 2024
- Whitened resumes doubled Black-candidate callbacks (10% to 25%)Kang, DeCelles, Tilcsik & Jun, Administrative Science Quarterly — 2016
- No decline in racial hiring discrimination over 25 years -- 36% white callback advantage (PNAS)Quillian, Pager, Hexel & Midtboen, PNAS 114(41) — 2017
- LLMs preferred white-associated names 85% vs 9% Black (n>3M)Wilson & Caliskan, AIES 2024 (NIST-funded) — 2024
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