Report finds STEM job candidates facing bias after career break

Participants in the STEM Returners Index said they felt they were being penalised for their age, gender, ethnicity and whether they had a disability. Bias against their lack of recent experience was their main barrier to entry, according to the survey.

The STEM Returners Index asks over 1,000 STEM professionals on a career break a range of questions to understand their experiences of trying to re-enter the STEM sector.

In the 2024 Index, more people said they felt they had experienced personal bias in the recruitment system compared to the previous year, (40 per cent in 2024 vs 33 per cent in 2023) and said they found returning to work difficult or very difficult (65 per cent in 2024 vs 51 per cent in 2023).

In total, 51 per cent of respondents said a perceived lack of experience was a barrier to entry, up from 38 per cent in 2023.

In the survey, 26 per cent of women said they felt they have personally experienced bias in the recruitment process due to their gender compared to eight per cent of men. One in five women said they experienced bias due to their childcare responsibilities and 58 per cent of women said they experienced bias because of a lack of experience, an increase from last year’s survey when 10 per cent of women reported this.

Men (38 per cent) and women (33 per cent) said they felt they have personally experienced bias in recruitment processes due to their age.

In the survey, professionals from minority ethnic backgrounds represented 40 per cent of candidates attempting to return to work in 2024. They were twice as likely as all other ethnic groups (38 per cent vs an average of 18 per cent) to feel they have experienced bias in a recruitment process related to race or ethnicity.

42 per cent of returners who identified with a limiting health condition or disability reported experiencing bias due to their health circumstances, which is up from 12 per cent in 2023.

In a statement, Natalie Desty, director of STEM Returners, said: “It’s disappointing to see that returners are still being penalised because of a gap on their CV. We know that most people do not take a career break out of choice – only 15 per cent of our survey’s respondents said it was their choice to take a career break. So why are more people being penalised for a lack of recent experience when for many, it’s something that cannot be helped? It’s particularly concerning to see more people saying they’ve experienced bias against their health and disability status.

“There are growing skills gaps across the engineering, tech and green jobs sectors that returners are ready and waiting to fill. More people saying they are experiencing bias suggests that discrimination in the recruitment process is systemic and industry leaders must do more to update recruitment practices and challenge unconscious bias to give returners a fair chance to re-join the industry they are passionate about.”