Jobless Discrimination? When Firms Won't Even Consider Hiring Anyone Unemployed

Time ^ | 05/23/11 | Adam Cohen

[Borges]

When Sony Ericsson needed new workers after it relocated its U.S. headquarters to Atlanta last year, its recruiters told one particular group of applicants not to bother. "No unemployed candidates will be considered at all," one online job listing said.

The cell-phone giant later said the listing, which produced a media uproar, had been a mistake. But other companies continue to refuse to even consider the unemployed for jobs — a harsh catch-22 at a time when long-term joblessness is at its highest level in decades.

Refusing to hire people on the basis of race, religion, age or disability — among other categories — is illegal. But companies that turn away jobless people as a group are generally not breaking the law — at least for now.

Job seekers have long known, of course, that it's easier to land a job when you are still working. There are no hard data on discrimination against the unemployed. But there have been reports from across the country of companies' making clear in job listings that they are not interested in people who are out of work. Employment experts say other companies have policies of hiring only people with jobs — but do not publicly acknowledge their bias.

At an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission hearing this year, Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, declared that "excluding the unemployed" is "becoming business as usual." Owens testified about a 55-year-old California woman who had applied for a job as a software-systems engineer. The recruiter for the position was enthusiastic until she learned that the woman had been out of work for six months. At that point, she told the woman she could not forward her résumé to the hiring company.

[Agamemnon]

No one should ever say that they are unemployed. Consulting is the way around it even if it is consulting for your sister...

Bad advice. Most employers spot such phonies a mile away. If you're going to be a consultant, get in with both feet and build a real business.

I've been consulting for more than 15 years. You can always pick out the guys who are real consultants and other guys who, while carrying a briefcase and business cards, are really just guys between jobs.

FReegards!