Only those with jobs can get new jobs. If you have no job, employers see you as "unworthy" for a job. It is a recent nationwide trend and it is growing.
"The precise rationale for excluding the unemployed from consideration for job openings is unknown, but media reports suggest a couple of possibilities for this practice. One is that with so many applicants for every job opening, screening out the unemployed or the long-term unemployed is a convenient device for reducing the workload associated with the hiring process. In other words, eliminating unemployed candidates from consideration is expedient for the employer or staffing firm.
But expediency is not a proxy for candidates’ qualifications, and excluding the unemployed simply because they are not currently working not only unfairly forecloses job opportunities to many qualified applicants, it potentially undermines an employer’s ability to recruit and retain the best candidates.
The second rationale for the exclusionary practice is more troubling: Employers presume that workers who are currently employed are more likely to be good performers and have a stronger work ethic than those who are unemployed. Of course, this reasoning completely ignores the realities of the current labor market, in which millions have become unemployed through no fault of their own, and unemployment spells are unusually long because of larger economic trends that have forced employers and entire industries to dramatically reduce their workforces."
More on the story from the National Employment Law Project, which list companies participating in this tactic.
And it is even worse if you have a college degree. Yeah, the unemployment rate for those with a degree is double that of those without. WOO HOO!! Can you hear the frustration? I believe a lot of this is because when we apply for jobs that only require a HS Dipoloma or GED, they think we are over qualified, will get bored with the job, or will expect too much money. What they seem to forget is that many of us had to work our way through school and haven't forgotten how to do that!!
ReplyDeleteYep,that is the problem I ran into these past couple of years. Since I was not currently employeed FULL time they did not even want to look at my resume.
ReplyDeleteOne place even hired a person with less than 1 years experience in office work because she has been working full time at a fast food place.