Disposable People: The Unemployed Need Not Apply

[paft.livejournal.com]

From Clickorlando.com 6/1/10:
Job hunters are facing a new hurdle: businesses asking recruitment companies to keep unemployed people out of their job pools.

Video here.

Yes, you read that right. Some businesses are now placing job ads that exclude all those icky unemployed people. A trend I first mentioned back in July of last year is continuing and, according to this story, growing.

So, many of the unemployed face, not only the cutting off of their unemployment benefits, not only potential employers holding bad credit ratings, (often a byproduct of not having a job) against them, they now are increasingly being barred by potential employers from applying for job openings -- because they are unemployed.

Apparently in today’s society, more and more, once you’re out, you’re out.

Think of the weapon this hands employers. The saying, so beloved of free market types, “If you don’t like the job, quit and find another one,” is becoming not just a platitude, but a mocking sneer. Quitting is no longer an option, being fired, or laid off, no longer a relatively minor blip in someone’s working life.

If this trend continues, unemployment itself could become a catastrophe that knocks someone permanently out of full time work.

Comments

[readherring.livejournal.com]

For as long as I can remember, employers have preferred hiring people who were already employed. That's fairly common knowledge among career-seekers.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

There's no chance of that becoming a large trend because, at some point, you'll run out of people in a certain market. To want to avoid people who have been our of work for a long time is not new, and not actually news.

[404.livejournal.com]

I personally think that businesses should not even be allowed to see a potential employee's credit rating. I don't see how that would affect credentials nor their performance on the job.

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

The problem is more and more companies move to hiring only through recruiters, to avoid wading through thousands of applications, many not quite right.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

I had a friend that worked as an IT expert for a background search company that marketed their services heavily to HR depts of large corporations. Business typically triples every year for them. They offered a whole suite of checks, going to extraordinary lengths to find out about potential candidates, none of it justified in my mind. The HR vice presidents will make the claim a person with a bad credit report* shows a lack of judgment and responsibility, someone they wouldn't want to hire for a position.


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* that can include such things as bankruptcies, foreclosures, car repossessions including voluntary ones, and bounced checks.

Not to worry...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I seriously doubt that the practice will ever apply to the local grocery store or to the department of sanitation as they seek a street sweeper.

I got some good career advice over twenty years back when I was counseled to find a new job before tendering my resignation.

[headhouse.livejournal.com]

I don't understand why you're using bit.ly links in this post. Is there a reason for this that I'm not getting?

Recruitment experts say many companies are opting out of so-called passive job seekers for a number of reasons. First, it could take longer to get them up to speed in professions that require constant training. They also say people who have not been laid off are believed to be the best in the fields, therefore more valuable.

From the employer's point of view, this makes sense. At the same time, this reasoning would not apply to all or even most employment opportunities (service industry and retail, for instance, would largely be immune to this reasoning), so this issue is far, far, far from being the cause of a catastrophe.

False alarm.

[headhouse.livejournal.com]

Wait. Have you recently applied for a job?

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

The saying, so beloved of free market types, “If you don’t like the job, quit and find another one,” is becoming not just a platitude, but a mocking sneer.

Everyone knows you're supposed to find a new job before quitting. Ok, smart people know this.