Qualified but overlooked: How bias keeps Indigenous job seekers from getting hired

New research into hiring in the food services sector shows Indigenous job seekers are being screened out at the first rung of the career ladder. (Unsplash+) Qualified but overlooked: How bias keeps Indigenous job seekers from getting hired Published: September 3, 2026 12.29pm EDT Share article Print article Indigenous workers in Canada experience higher unemployment rates and lower rates of labour market participation than non-Indigenous workers. Policy discussions about closing this gap have often highlighted education, training and skills development as important pathways to employment. But what happens when people acquire the necessary qualifications, submit applications and still don’t receive a response? Our new research on hiring practices in the food services industry suggests that improving access to skills and education alone doesn’t fully address employment disparities. Instead, we must also consider what happens after people acquire these qualifications: how employers evaluate, select and ultimately reject or advance job applicants. Our findings reveal that Indigenous job seekers can face barriers at the very point of entry into the workforce, where decisions are shaped not only by qualifications and experience but also by perceptions of identity and workplace fit. Discrimination in the hiring process Public debates about Canada’s labour market often focus on labour supply: migrant worker programs, immigration and the challenges facing young workers. Less attention is paid to the experiences of Indigenous people seeking employment. To examine these experiences, we conducted a large-scale resumé audit study of employer hiring preferences in the food services sector. We submitted more than 6,000 fictitious but realistic resumés to actual job postings for servers, hosts and bartenders in Ontario and Saskatchewan. Each resumé contained equivalent levels of education, work experience, certifications and availability. The resumés differed only in signals of identity, including names, gender, citizenship status and indicators of ethnicity or Indigenous identity. A large-scale resumé audit of Ontario and Saskatchewan food service postings complicates the industry’s labour shortage narrative. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) To signal an Indigenous background, some resumés included volunteer experience with Indigenous community organizations, fluency in an Indigenous language or credentials from an Indigenous college or university. These were…