Consider the following article. As we all know, unemployment is cruising along at 9.5-10%, and has been for months. Temporary census hires to the contrary, there appears to be no end in sight to it. Now, it appears things may be getting worse for the long term unemployed. Businesses and corporations are increasingly adopting policies that restrict or exclude the unemployed from consideration when filling vacant positions.
Disturbing Job Ads: ‘The Unemployed Will Not Be Considered’ Disturbing Job Ads: ‘The Unemployed Will Not Be Considered’
First Posted: 06- 4-10 11:52 AM | Updated: 06- 4-10 03:50 PM
Still waiting for a response to the 300 resumés you sent out last month? Bad news: Some companies are ignoring all unemployed applicants.
In a current job posting on The People Place, a job recruiting website for the telecommunications, aerospace/defense and engineering industries, an anonymous electronics company in Angleton, Texas, advertises for a “Quality Engineer.” Qualifications for the job are the usual: computer skills, oral and written communication skills, light to moderate lifting. But red print at the bottom of the ad says, “Client will not consider/review anyone NOT currently employed regardless of the reason.”
In a nearly identical job posting for the same position on the Benchmark Electronics website, the red print is missing. But a human resources representative for the company confirmed to HuffPost that the The People Place ad accurately reflects the company’s recruitment policies.
“It’s our preference that they currently be employed,” he said. “We typically go after people that are happy where they are and then tell them about the opportunities here. We do get a lot of applications blindly from people who are currently unemployed — with the economy being what it is, we’ve had a lot of people contact us that don’t have the skill sets we want, so we try to minimize the amount of time we spent on that and try to rifle-shoot the folks we’re interested in.”
There are about 5.5 people looking for work for every job available, according to the latest data from the Labor Department.
Source
This is truly disturbing. It has always been an adage that to get a job you need a job (just as you must have experience to get the jobs that provide experience), but this is the first time that I am aware of where it has become explicit policy. Were it just one or two places, that would be unfortunate but of no particular note. However, from the tone and tenor of the article, this is becoming more common. How do you square this with the “Obama Boom” myth?
There is no easy fix for this. Companies in many (perhaps most) states can hire and fire pretty much at will, barring outright discrimination against “protected” minorities. The unemployed are too amorphous an interest group to attract the attention of the professional victimologists, especially during a Democrat Administration. Unemployment will not go down until there is real recovery in the economy, and that requires policies that encourage growth and investment, not punish entrepreneurship and success.
That isn’t likely to change until there is a change in administrations. Even then, if employers will only consider the currently employed for open position the long-term unemployed will suffer the long-term effects of the Obama Economy.
Tags: Economy, Obama Boom, Unemployment
