Job Application Procedures and Inequalities: Insights from LGBTQ Job Seekers in Japan

• In Event: Sociology of Sexualities Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 4: Sexuality, Labor, and Work

Abstract

Research shows that some employer requirements for job applications create inequalities among job seekers by preventing certain job seekers from completing applications and staying in the applicant pool. Although application procedures vary considerably across countries, many past studies have been conducted in a small number of Western countries, which has limited the current understanding about what application procedures create job seeker inequalities and how. This paper seeks to expand the literature by focusing on Japan as a national context and by examining how conventions of application requirements in the country constrain first post-graduation job search among LGBTQ people—a job seeker group who has received limited attention in past research. Analysis of in-depth interview data showed that LGBTQ people’s job search and career prospects were hindered by four hiring conventions in the country, including the annual cycle, the early start of the recruitment season, employers’ use of “entry sheets” in interviews, and their tendency to hire new employees without specifying positions. Other national conditions, such as low labor mobility, gender stratification in the labour market, and a lack of legal protections of LGBTQ workers, endorsed these processes. The results extend the existing literature of job seeker inequalities by highlighting the role of national contexts, which specify application procedures that employers are likely to require as well as institutional conditions that intensify how these procedures create job seeker inequalities.

Author

• Koji Ueno, Florida State University