Half of IT workers are discriminated against

Over half of IT job-hunters believe they have been discriminated against, research shows.

Some 52 per cent of the 928 respondents to the survey conducted by recruitment company Huxley Associates' ICT division said they had experienced some form of discrimination.

Of those, 56 per cent said they were discriminated against on the grounds of age, 29 per cent because of their ethnic origin, nine per cent on gender, five per cent on disability, and two per cent on sexual orientation.

'Unfortunately it seems that a high proportion of candidates have experienced discrimination when applying for a job,' the survey said.

'The problem for employers and recruiters is that in order to implement diversity strategies and improve on candidate diversity they need to firstly capture and then monitor personal information.'

The survey showed that 80 per cent of people looking for IT-related jobs are male.

Of the 20 per cent of women who answered the survey, 52.2 per cent said they have been discriminated against, 8.6 per cent of which was related to their gender.

Just two per cent of the 51.2 per cent of men that said they had suffered discrimination cited gender as the reason.

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