Though many haredi men claim the workforce discriminates against them based on their religious affiliation alone, no one has proven the claim to be true until now.
In a new study by NRG 360 and Tel Aviv University, when given 100 identical resumes of secular and religious candidates applying for a sales job, companies will call secular individuals twice as often as they will call haredi individuals.
Since the only differences in the resumes was the academic background, which is nonessential for a sales position, the researchers concluded the discrimination was based on religious background only.
All of the haredi candidates had decided to find jobs and sent many resumes, but the secular bosses were unwilling to take haredi workers for reasons unrelated to their ability to succeed at the job in question.
The research also mentioned several reasons why companies tend not to interview haredi candidates. Among these reasons are fear of the unknown (since people naturally tend to prefer those who are like themselves), and concern that the haredi candidate will not be able to integrate into an environment which includes the opposite gender, a non-kosher kitchen, and hours not conducive to daily prayer.
One Chabad man told Arutz Sheva, "I sent hundreds of CVs, but no one ever called me back. One day my wife erased my yeshiva studies from my CV and left a hole in it, as if I'd wasted those years. Suddenly 40% of prospective employers called me back. But even when I traveled to Tel Aviv from Be'er Sheva for an interview, it never worked out."
"One interviewer took a look at me and said, 'I'm sorry, there was a mistake.' There was no mistake, she just wasn't expecting me to be haredi. If I had shaved my beard, cut my peyot, and switched from a black kippa to a small knitted kippa, I would have found a job three years ago.
"A HOT interviewer once asked, 'But how can you work here, there are so many women?' And I always say I studied in a co-ed university, I have no problem with it. But people judge me by my dress, they don't care that I'm not like the stereotypical haredi. The only jobs I've had are those for which I did not have an interview.
"Everybody complains about haredim not working, but it's a real big chutzpa to complain if you're not willing to hire a secularly-educated haredi, just because he's haredi. And I'm not even haredi, I'm Chabad."