Religious bias still keeps “white collar” workers out of jobs “on all levels, from clerical to professional,” according to a five-year survey of six major areas made by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
The report, detailing prejudicial hiring practices in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Pennsylvania and among the college placement bureaus of the Midwest, was made public here today by Henry Edward Schultz, national chairman of the League. About 18 percent of 20,000 “white collar” job vacancies listed for filling in Chicago in the last six months barred Jews from consideration for those openings, the survey showed.
In Los Angeles, all but one of 126 employment agencies surveyed “had agreed to screen out Jews when referring applicants to prospective employers,” the data showed. The single agency that had refused to discriminate against Jewish job applicants is Jewish-owned. The same situation exists in Denver, where 45 out of 46 employment agencies, including public agencies, had agreed to service a request for a secretary with applicants who were “white Protestant.”
The report commended the President’s Committee on Government Contracts, “as a strong new force in combating job discrimination.” But it pointed out that many firms practicing employment discrimination held federal government contracts and were “violating their contractual pledge not to discriminate because of race, religion or national origin.”
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