A newly released special edition of the Freedom Economy Index (FEI) for June 2024 found that American flag bans and “hiding” ideology is what center to center-right employees endure in today’s workplace.
“I cannot wear a beautiful cross necklace my husband got me,” wrote one respondent. “I was told to remove an American Flag pin off my jacket,” wrote another.
The survey also found widespread concern, backed by personal experiences, that artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to automatically weed out those resumes that don’t fit the preferred DEI profile.
A sampling of the verbatim responses includes:
“I was unemployed for 3 months and only received call backs if I did not include that I am white.”
“Almost every time I'd gotten in an interview was when I opted out of identifying my race or sex on my application.”
“I am a radical feminist which is a kind of leftist, but I am sympathetic to the discrimination that conservatives have experienced in the workplace.”
The special edition survey, a joint project of RedBalloon and PublicSquare, polled a file of 100,000 employees & job seekers from RedBalloon’s national job seeker profile database. The FEI has typically polled a joint file of 80,000 small business owners from PublicSquare and RedBalloon’s customer files.
The results found that nearly half of US jobseekers are “much worse” off financially than a year ago. It also revealed that DEI-related hiring discrimination is much worse in California than in other states.
7 out of 10 job seekers say they’d take less money if that means they can work in a merit-driven, positive workplace, than take more money to work in a DEI-driven workplace.
“The fact that over 75% of job seekers believe AI is being used to screen out resumes that don't align with DEI quotas is a damning indictment of the corporate embrace of woke ideology over merit and competence,” Andrew Crapuchettes, RedBalloon CEO, said. “This discrimination has no place in a free and fair job market."
"It’s no wonder that worker productivity is near historic lows,” said RedBalloon CEO Andrew Crapuchettes. “Companies need to abandon all of this harmful social engineering and return to merit-based workplace culture.”
“For centuries, the American workplace has been the engine that fueled the global economy,” added Michael Seifert, CEO of PublicSquare. “Abandoning all this DEI nonsense will help America reassert our legacy in the global marketplace.”
Key Findings:
Financial Struggles
74.7% of job seekers say their personal financial situation is "somewhat" or "much" worse off than a year ago.
1 in 5 job seekers say their finances would last less than 2 weeks if they lost their jobs today.
37% of job seekers have had to delay bill payments this year to survive.
Hiring Discrimination
Job seekers in California are subject to far more Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) discrimination in the hiring process than those in Texas or Florida.
75.4% of job seekers believe AI is being used to screen out resumes that don't fit the current "preferred" DEI profiles needed to fulfill corporate DEI quotas.
63% of job seekers are "worried" about workplace repercussions if it's discovered that "they are a Republican or conservative."
The Freedom Economy
76.5% of job seekers say they'd be willing to make less money if it means a more positive, less DEI-dominated workplace in which to work. Download the full report here.
Charts:
Conclusion:
The pendulum is swinging back toward freedom and away from cancel culture. American employees want to work in positive workplaces, with productive, mission-oriented collaboration, free from divisive cancel culture.
The Freedom Economy is growing, and this survey reveals the struggles and hopes of those who work on the front lines of our economy.
Methodology:
The June Freedom Economy Index Survey focusing on job seekers sampled a universe of over 100,000 job seekers from RedBalloon’s national job seeker database. The survey fielded from May 22 to May 31, with 949 respondents with a +/- 3% margin of error at the 95% confidence level.