Why Engaging Marginally Attached and Discouraged Workers Matters in Diversity Recruitment

This is #IncreaseDiversity, a weekly newsletter series + Increase Diversity Toolbox sharing best practices for employers who want to learn how to… well, increase diversity. To see previous editions, visit JenniferTardy.com. | IG: @IncreaseDiversity | Increase Diversity - YouTube

Today, I would like to consider two groups of job seekers who are rarely in the spotlight.

In this newsletter, I will focus on people who want a job but have not recently been seeking employment (which could be for any number of reasons). In official statistics, these individuals are referred to as marginally attached and discouraged workers. They are not counted as unemployed because they are placed in separate categories by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

You may be asking, why is this relevant to me as a recruiter?

Well, as we will see, some historically underrepresented groups are more likely to be marginally attached or discouraged. That has clear implications for our efforts to increase diversity, a point I will revisit later. But to begin with, I will introduce these groups and briefly explain what we know about them based on the available information.

Who Are Marginally Attached and Discouraged Workers?

The definitions the BLS uses can be summarized as follows:

Marginally attached workers: People who want a job and have searched for work during the last year, but not within the last four weeks.

Discouraged workers: People who want a job and have searched for work during the last year, but not within the last four weeks, because they think they have no chance of finding work. Therefore, this group is a subset of marginally attached workers. Common reasons for discouragement include a belief that no jobs are available (or none for which they would qualify), a lack of suitable training or experience, and hiring discrimination by employers.

The BLS has kept records on both groups as far back as 1994 (although it actually began tracking discouraged workers earlier, in 1967). Marginally attached and discouraged workers are classed separately to those who are unemployed because they must have looked for work within the previous four weeks to meet the official definition of unemployment.

So, how many people fit into these categories?

At present, there are around 1.4 million marginally attached workers. Interestingly, this is similar to the number at the start of data collection in 1994. Discouraged workers are currently estimated at about 300,000 people, which is similar to the situation in the mid-2000s. The “baseline” size of both groups has remained largely unchanged over the past 30 years, apart from increases during 2008–2010 and 2020–2021 due to the Great Recession and the pandemic, respectively.

But why have I chosen to focus on these groups today?

In short, it is because we never talk about them when we talk about labor force data. Yet as recruiters, I think it is important for us to try and understand this “invisible labor force.” Looking at the issue as diversity recruiters in particular, one question that might come up is, who is overrepresented among marginally attached and discouraged workers? Or put differently, are people from historically underrepresented groups concentrated among these job seekers?

Uncovering “Invisible” African American Discouragement

The above questions are actually quite challenging to answer, as data based on demographic characteristics is scarce. While we only have a few reliable snapshots from periodic studies, it seems clear that Black Americans have been significantly overrepresented among marginally attached and discouraged workers for some time.

A government report from 1978 found that “worker discouragement due to job market factors in 1975 was about three times as great among Black as among White workers.” From 1994–1999, Black Americans represented 26.1% of marginally attached workers and 32.9% of discouraged workers, but only around 12.5% of the overall population. In 2009, a BLS report revealed that people identifying as Black or African American were the most overrepresented group among marginally attached workers (accounting for 22.2% of them, compared with 12.2% of the general population).

Tristan Potter, an Assistant Professor of Economics at Drexel University, recently analyzed the situation in more detail by tracking “discouragement rates” derived from historical data (covering the years 1976–2021). In line with other studies, Black Americans consistently had the highest rate (by race) across the full study period. People identifying as Hispanic were more likely to be discouraged than Whites only from 1985 to 2010, and even then, not to the same extent as for Black job seekers.

From this, we can see that Black Americans have consistently been the most overrepresented group among marginally attached and discouraged workers, since at least the 1970s. This is crucial to realize, but what else can we learn?

Other Trends in Job Seeker Discouragement

The same analysis turned up other important demographic trends. For instance, in the late 1970s, women accounted for almost twice as many discouraged workers as men, although this gap had closed by the mid-1990s. However, older workers (55+) are much more likely to be discouraged than younger age groups, and this trend has remained the same for at least the past 40 years.

The “discouraged worker effect” also tracks with educational level. In particular, the discouragement rate is noticeably lower for individuals with a college education, from 1990 to the present. This perhaps highlights an intersectionality of inequality, given the barriers that Black Americans face to accessing higher education.

There are other historically underrepresented groups that we know essentially nothing about, in terms of marginal attachment or discouragement in the labor market. For example, when we researched this topic at Team JTC, we did not locate any relevant studies on LGBTQ+ or Native American job seekers. Given the obstacle course we know people face when looking for employment, I would not be surprised to find individuals of other marginalized communities among the discouraged worker population.

If you are interested in digging deeper into potential reasons for worker discouragement, I have covered several relevant issues in previous articles. For example, searching for a job often means navigating many rejections along the way, which can have a significant impact on mental health. For Black and Latinx workers who face barriers to accessing higher education, unnecessary degree requirements in many jobs can be doubly discouraging. And for African Americans, the enduring legacy of enslavement can also translate into unfair bias in hiring processes.

How Should We Respond?

As we look to increase diversity in our organizations, we should consider how certain candidates we are trying to attract may be overly pessimistic about their job prospects.

In other words, job seekers from historically underrepresented groups might be more likely to self-select out of potential job opportunities, or of even looking for them at all, due to past experiences or more general feelings of discouragement.

Therefore, in your workplace, I would prompt you to ask what you can do to better engage marginally attached and discouraged workers, particularly where you have areas of underrepresentation in your candidate pool.

The best approach will vary depending on the nature of your organization, but for example, giving success stories of people from underrepresented backgrounds can provide powerful inspiration for prospective candidates, in ways that may help overcome worker discouragement. Alternatively, highlight your existing progress on increasing diversity—perhaps through social media campaigns—to show marginally attached job seekers from underrepresented groups some clear evidence that you would value their application.

In sum, do not overlook these “hidden” unemployed job seekers in your recruitment efforts, and work to address the pain points of discouraged workers in ways that overcome their commonly perceived barriers to accessing employment. I think this is one important factor toward more balanced candidate pools, which are an essential feature of any successful diversity recruitment strategy.

JOIN US IN THE COMMENTS: What struck you most about the experiences of marginally attached and discouraged workers? Where you work, have you already aimed to engage these job seekers in your sourcing strategies? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!