Swimming Against the Tide: Literacy Dificulties and the Labour Market

Abstract

Reports research on the vacancy‐filling process among UK employers for less skilled jobs, and identifies where and how people with literacy shortcomings lose out – based on a survey of 2,000 UK employers, and interviews with 30. Concludes that overt discrimination in hiring is uncommon. While some unskilled jobs do have a high literacy requirement, recruiters mostly tend to overestimate this requirement in selection, particularly if market conditions permit a wide choice of applicants.

Citation

Atkinson, J. (1992), "Swimming Against the Tide: Literacy Dificulties and the Labour Market", Education + Training, Vol. 34 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400919210010788