Disability Discrimination : Evidence from the Swedish Labor Market

This study presents the results from the first-ever correspondence test to study hiring discrimination against disabled individuals in the Swedish labor market. Fictitious applications (N = 768) were sent to employers posting cleaner jobs on the Swedish Public Employment Service.The findings in this thesis suggest that disabled applicants are being discriminated against when applying for cleaning jobs in the Swedish labor market. Disabled applicants were less likely to receive a positive employer response than non-disabled applicants, which was evident for both male and female applicants. Moreover, the findings also suggest that non-disabled male applicants were less likely to receive positive employer responses than disabled female applicants, indicating that male applicants are especially subject to discrimination when applying for cleaning jobs in the Swedish labor market. These findings imply that the labor market policy Samhall fail to fulfill its goal of improving the chances of disabled individuals entering the regular labor market.