Job seekers suffer from appearance discrimination: survey

Four of the 10 job seekers have experienced discrimination in appearance in employment process, according to a survey.

The survey conducted by Career(www.career.co.kr), an online job site in Korea, shows that 42.4 percent of the 583 respondents have got disadvantages in their appearances during the job seeking process.

In dual answers to the questions on types of disadvantages, 53.4 percent replied that they failed in being employed due to appearance rather than job experiences, followed by capability such as education level or academic performance or career with 35.6 percent.

As many as 25.5 percent replied that they got discriminated as they were compared to other applicants, followed by open remarks against appearance with 20.6 percent. Even 16.2 percent of the respondents replied that they received questions about appearances.

However, it shows that as many as 55.9 percent did not take positive action. They only kept mum on the disadvantage or damages in appearance discrimination, according to the survey.

On the other hand, as positive actions, 31.2 percent answered that they went to office although they were admitted active actions, 7.3 percent improved their appearances and only 4 percent strongly protested against the appearance discrimination.

As many as 85.2 percent of the respondents replied that appearance affects on job-seeking activities with about four of five believing that it influences a lot.

On the other hand, only one percent replied that the appearance affect very little.