What is the response rate I can expect when reaching out to a listing related to a legitimate-looking low-paying position on Craigslist?
Objective: To gather
data to identify trends related to a job applicant's first name and the effect
the first name has on receiving a postive e-mail response from a Craigslist ad
for a low-paying job
"Low-paying job" is defined as a position that
either advertises or has a market labor rate of less than twice minimum wage.
(Roughly $13.50/hr)
"Postive e-mail response" is defined as an e-mail
response from the potential employer that either greets the applicant by
first/last name, provides further information about the job, or requests more
information from the job applicant.
Procedure: A Gmail
address with the applicant's first and last name with less than 4 random
numbers included in the e-mail address was created for each applicant. The last name of white and black applicants
was based on the top popular shared last names between caucasian and black
Americans according to 2010 Social Security Administration information. Hispanic first names were chosen based on
popular "hispanic-only" names per a quick Google search, Hispanic
last names were chosen based on top common shared Hispanic last names per the
2010 Social Security Administration data.
The Craigslist cities chosen were a Midwestern metropolitan area of
approximately 2,000,000 individuals and a Southern metropolitan area of
approximately 6,100,000 individuals. A
total of 300 emails were sent to employers.
Each of the 300 emails sent to employers were sent within 4 hours of one
another between 5:45pm CST and 9:45pm CST on Thursday, September 4th 2014. E-mails sent to employers contained basic
language made up of less than 3 sentences with no spelling/grammar mistakes
inquiring further about the position.
The applicant's name (signature) was evident on all e-mails sent. The applicants were made up of 6 female, 9
male applicants; 3 perceived white female names, 3 perceived black female
names, 3 perceived white male names, 3 perceived black male names, and 3
perceived hispanic male names. Of the 15
applicants, 2 from each perceived group (a total of 10 applicants) sent an
e-mail inquiring about each job. A total
of 30 jobs were selected from the respective city's Craigslist "help
wanted" website. The jobs selected
were unique by city and selected at random based on the Craigslist ad's post
date.
Special notes: 13 of
the 45 jobs the applicants inquired about received no response for any
applicant. (28.8% no response rate)
Study Part II: Added
Craigslist City #3 (Metro area of 2,700,000 individuals on East coast) with job
applications sent from the fifteen applicants the evening of Wednesday,
September 10th.
Data Source
Conclusions:
- When it comes to low-paying jobs on Craigslist (less than $13.50/hr) the perceived gender and ethnicity from your first name is going to heavily influence the chances of a potential employer calling you back for an interview. Many employers appear to have a predetermined gender/ethnicity in mind and make interview-consideration decisions accordingly.
- Roughly 70% of Craigslist job inquiries are responded to. (Much higher than I thought!)
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