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25 Sep 2023

Skills & careers

Bias against race, age, and gender still preventing return to STEM industries

Recruitment bias against race, age and gender continues to prevent STEM professionals who have had a career break returning to employment, according to a new survey by STEM Returners.

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The STEM Returners Index 2023, published during National Inclusion Week (September 25 – October 1, 2023), showed women trying to return to the engineering industry after a career break are more likely to experience recruitment bias than men.

The Index asked over 1,000 STEM professionals on a career break a range of questions to understand their experiences of trying to re-enter the STEM sector.

Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of women said they felt they have personally experienced bias in recruitment processes due to their gender compared to nine per cent of men.

In the survey, professionals from minority ethnic backgrounds represented a large proportion (39 per cent) of candidates attempting to return to work in 2023. They were twice as likely as all other ethnic groups (34 per cent vs an average of 17 per cent) to feel they have experienced bias in a recruitment process related to race or ethnicity.

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