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

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 build a model combining taste and statistical discrimination explaining why North Afr ican origin applicants should proportionally benefit more from signaling current employment than their French origin counterparts. We construct 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 findevidences of significant hiring discrimination against applicants of North African origin, regardless of their job status. Signaling employment seems to be valorized only for North Africans applicants. We cannot however affirm that employed applicants are less penalized by their national origin than the unemployed ones