Couldn’t care less? Understanding and reducing the hiring penalty of care-related career breaks

Surging demands for the care of dependent relatives increasingly pull workers out of paid employment. However, upon returning to the labour market, former caregivers often face hiring discrimination. Still, it remains unclear which caregiving engagements trigger this care penalty, what mechanisms sustain it, and how it can be countered. Conducting a factorial survey experiment with professional recruiters, this study compares hiring evaluations across multiple care- and non-care-related career breaks and identifies the mechanisms that anchor them. The findings show that the scarring effects of care-related breaks are less pronounced than those of long-term unemployment spells, but still substantial. Perceptions of skill loss, reduced commitment, and limited future availability fuel the care penalty. These negative perceptions are most evident following childcare-related breaks. Nonetheless, recruiters prove responsive to targeted counter-stereotypical cues: signalling flexibility or adaptability increases caregivers’ hireability, but not for the long-term unemployed.