Comparing Business vs Market Demographics

About the AssignmentThere are many occurrences when bias is found in the selection and retention of employees
even when the bias is unintentional. Sometimes, one must look at the results of a process,
instead of how it is applied, to see if there is a problem. This assignment will guide you through
that investigatory process.
It is generally expected that the demographics (characteristics which can be measured) of a
business’ employees will roughly match the same characteristics of the local labor market. If
there are significant differences, there may be reason to suspect that the hiring process for the
business may overtly or subtly favor certain applicants over others. That not only might be
illegal, but may also result in the business not hiring the most qualified employees.
Using nationwide data to investigate for the U.S., perform the following two top-level overviews:
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Select five (5) demographic segments/groupings that are available to define the
characteristics of the U.S. labor market.
Describe the U.S.’ general population using the SAME five (5) demographic
variables/segments that you used to define the country’s overall labor market.
You may use the following websites to start your research and then expand to other sites:
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US Bureau of Labor Statistics
US Census Bureau
Note – the Census data will have a larger population than the labor market data, so you may
need to adjust the Census for people who are too young or old to be in the labor market.
Prompt
Create a one-page table to show how the selected demographics for businesses compare with
the same demographics for the labor market in the U.S. (e.g. compare the percentage of Black
workers in the labor market to the percentage of Black residents in the state, or workers aged
25 – 38 YO, etc.).
In a narrative of 1,000 words, note any demographic categories where it appears the
percentages may be significantly out of what is considered normal. Speculate on possible legal
and illegal reasons for this difference. Make at least two recommendations on how current
employment procedures may contribute to the disparity, and how they might be changed to
bring the percentages more in line.
Formatting & Sources
Please write your paper in the APA format. You may refer to the course material for supporting
evidence, but you must also use three outside sources and cite them using APA format. Please
include a mix of both primary and secondary sources, with at least one source from a scholarly
peer-reviewed journal.
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Primary sources are first-hand accounts such as interviews, advertisements, speeches,
company documents, statements, and press releases published by the company in
question.
Secondary sources come from peer-reviewed scholarly journals, such as Socius:
Sociological Research for a Dynamic World. You may use sources like JSTOR, Google
Scholar, and sagepub.org to find articles from these journals. Secondary sources may
also come from reputable websites with .gov, .edu, or .org in the domain. (Wikipedia is
not a reputable source, though the sources listed in Wikipedia articles may be
acceptable.)