SYDNEY - Job seekers in Australia face a tougher time finding work if they have non-English sounding names, with Chinese and Middle Eastern applicants facing the worst discrimination, a study has found.

Researchers from Canberra's Australian National University (ANU) sent out 4,000 fake job applications in response to employment advertisements in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane using ethnically distinct names.

They found Chinese applicants needed to send 68 percent more CVs than those with English names to get the same number of interviews, with Middle Eastern job-seekers requiring an additional 64 percent and Aborigines 35 percent.

The information about the applicants' qualifications for the advertised position was identical, leaving the name as the only variable for employers to decide whether to grant an interview.

"We found clear evidence of discrimination... job applicants find it easier to get an interview if they have an Anglo Saxon name," ANU researcher Alison Booth said.

The researchers suggested recently arrived migrant groups faced the most prejudice, pointing out that Italians - well established since the 1940s - needed to send only 12 percent more applications than Anglo Saxons.

Researcher Andrew Leigh admitted he was surprised the results pointed to widespread job-market discrimination in Australia, a country where one-in-four residents was born overseas.

He said the study showed major differences between Australian cities.

In Sydney, Chinese had to send out 92 percent more CVs than those with English names, with the figure 80 percent for Middle Eastern applicants.

In Melbourne the figures dropped to 61 percent and 64 percent respectively, falling to 57 and 51 percent in Brisbane.

"As a Sydney lad, I was confident its bosses would be the most tolerant and cosmopolitan of the three cities, while Brisbane employers would be a bunch of rednecks," Leigh told the Australian newspaper.

"It was, in fact, the other way around."