{
  "registry_version": "2026.08.2",
  "data": {
    "title": "Employment Gap Downranking Bias",
    "status": "active",
    "evidence_ids": [
      "EVD-003"
    ],
    "content": "# Employment Gap Downranking Bias\n\nAutomated ranking algorithms or human screeners discount candidates with recent career breaks regardless of verified project history.\n\n### Structural Context\n- **Actor:** `system`\n- **Nature:** `bias`\n- **Removability:** `none`\n\n### Causal Relations\n- Amplifies `M-008` — Automated Keyword / Qualification Filter\n\n### Non-Inferences\n- Employment gap does not correlate with underlying technical decline.",
    "id": "M-011",
    "type": "mechanism",
    "summary": "Automated ranking algorithms or human screeners discount candidates with recent career breaks regardless of verified project history.",
    "operates_at": [
      "B-002",
      "B-003"
    ],
    "emissions": [
      {
        "artifact": "A-001",
        "fidelity": "void",
        "likelihood": "high",
        "evidence": [
          "EVD-003"
        ]
      },
      {
        "artifact": "A-002",
        "fidelity": "euphemism",
        "likelihood": "high",
        "evidence": [
          "EVD-003"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "facets": {
      "actor": "system",
      "nature": "bias",
      "visibility": "inferable",
      "removability": "none"
    },
    "amplifies": [
      "M-008"
    ],
    "masks": [],
    "evidence_level": "supported",
    "honest_baseline": false,
    "specimens": [
      {
        "kind": "ats",
        "label": "Ranking breakdown, as scored",
        "lines": [
          {
            "text": "Skills match: 91/100",
            "tell": false
          },
          {
            "text": "Domain match: 88/100",
            "tell": false
          },
          {
            "text": "Continuity penalty: −22 (gap of 14 months detected)",
            "tell": true
          },
          {
            "text": "Final rank: 57/100 — below advance threshold",
            "tell": false
          }
        ],
        "reading": "The penalty is applied to a date range, not to anything in the work. Nothing the candidate shipped during or after the gap is in the arithmetic."
      }
    ],
    "non_inferences": [
      "Employment gap does not correlate with underlying technical decline."
    ]
  }
}