Indigenous job seekers face lower callback rates despite equal qualification, study finds

Indigenous job seekers may be facing barriers even before they get in the door, according to new research from McMaster University.

The study found Indigenous applicants were less likely than equally qualified non-Indigenous applicants to receive interview requests for entry-level food service jobs.

The study, published in Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: An International Journal, examined whether differences in education and experience fully explain why Indigenous people continue to have poorer employment outcomes than other Canadians.

Many discussions about Indigenous employment focus on education, training and skills, says Catherine Connelly, professor of Human Resources & Management at the DeGroote School of Business and co-author of the study.

According to Statistics Canada, the unemployment rate for Indigenous people in Canada was 10.2 per cent in 2025, compared to 6.9 per cent for the total population.

To test that question, researchers submitted thousands of simulated resumes to real food-service jobs in Toronto and Regina. The resumes were designed to signal different backgrounds and identities – different names, languages spoken, clubs for example – but all applicants had the same qualifications, work experience and availability.

“We considered all the things that employers would legitimately use to screen candidates. On paper, everybody should have had an equal chance of getting an interview,” says Connelly.

Researchers deliberately focused on food-service jobs because they typically require fewer formal credentials than many other occupations.

The overall callback rate was “abysmal.”

Across more than 6,000 applications, employers responded to only 11.4 per cent of candidates.

Notably, Indigenous candidates fared worse. Overall, they received callbacks on 9.9 per cent of applications, compared with 11.9 per cent for non-Indigenous applicants, including white workers, racialized immigrants and racialized citizens.

The gap was most pronounced in Saskatchewan, where Indigenous applicants received callbacks just 8.1 per cent of the time, compared with 13.2 per cent for non-Indigenous applicants.

Indigenous women received slightly more callbacks than Indigenous men, though both groups faced disadvantages compared with many other applicants.

While education and experience matter, they may not be enough to overcome biases that can affect employers’ perceptions of Indigenous applicants even in sectors often viewed as gateways into the workforce.

“People tend to assume everyone has a fair shot at an entry-level job. Our findings suggest that’s not always the case,” says Connelly.

Researchers say more work is needed to understand how those biases take shape and what can be done to reduce them.