26 July 2011

The Unemployed Need not Apply

Many employers are now explicitly saying in their ads that they only hire people who are currently employed:
That is the message being broadcast by many of the nation’s employers, making it even more difficult for 14 million jobless Americans to get back to work.

A recent review of job vacancy postings on popular sites like Monster.com, CareerBuilder and Craigslist revealed hundreds that said employers would consider (or at least “strongly prefer”) only people currently employed or just recently laid off.

Unemployed workers have long suspected that the gaping holes on their résumés left them less attractive to employers. But with the country in the worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression, many had hoped employers would be more forgiving.

“I feel like I am being shunned by our entire society,” said Kelly Wiedemer, 45, an information technology operations analyst who said a recruiter had told her that despite her skill set she would be a “hard sell” because she had been out of work for more than six months.

Legal experts say that the practice probably does not violate discrimination laws because unemployment is not a protected status, like age or race. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently held a hearing, though, on whether discriminating against the jobless might be illegal because it disproportionately hurts older people and blacks.
The American business culture is truly repulsive.

1 comments :

Sharon said...

This is how revolutions are sparked. Not all companies are like this, but too many are- outsourcing US jobs overseas, refusing to hire Americans who want to work (and who've often been laid off simply because their companies went under), then trying to cut Medicare, food stamps and other safety nets. All the while increasing the H1-B visa quota (to India nad just about everywhere else) even more each year.

Some of these Teabagger idiots don't realize that this is exactly what the French aristocrats did in the 1780's, hoping to weaken and starve the poor ever further. But hungry, angry people don't go quietly, especially if the system is so obviously full of outrage as to perpetrate an atrocity like this against hundreds of millions of Americans. Like the outrages of the Gilded Age all over again, but worse than before. I only hope this can be solved peacefully, at the ballot box- the 2012 elections are looking critical to the survival of our nation.

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