Job listings say the unemployed need not apply

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/job-listings-unemployed-not-apply-133143362.html

By Liz Goodwin | The Lookout – 4 hrs ago

Hundreds of job opening listings posted on Monster.com and other jobs sites explicitly state that people who are unemployed would be less attractive applicants, with some telling the long-term unemployed to not even bother with applying.

The New York Times' Catherine Rampell said she found preferences for the already employed or only recently laid off in listings for "hotel concierges, restaurant managers, teachers, I.T. specialists, business analysts, sales directors, account executives, orthopedics device salesmen, auditors and air-conditioning technicians." Even the massive University of Phoenix stated that preference, but removed the listings when the Times started asking questions.

The concerted shunning of unemployed Americans by prospective employers was a common theme that cropped up in the thousands of responses that poured in when we asked Yahoo! readers to share their experiences of unemployment for our "Down But Not Out" series.

Reader Susan W. said she was being treated "as if it were my fault I was unemployed, regardless of the fact that I had put out hundreds of resumes and applications."

Legal experts told the Times that explicitly barring unemployed people from applying does not qualify under the statutory definition of discrimination, since unemployment is not a federally protected status like age or race. But the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently set out to establish whether employers were discriminating against certain protected groups because they are overrepresented in the ranks of the unemployed, such as African-American and older workers. (We covered that meeting here.) New Jersey recently passed a law barring employment ads that seek to rule out applications from those who are unemployed.

Even if the practice of weeding out unemployed applicants doesn't fit the legal definition of discrimination, it sure feels unfair for the more than 6.3 million Americans who have been out of work for more than six months to be told they are automatically disqualified for the few openings that are out there. "I feel like I am being shunned by our entire society," Kelly Wiedemer, an unemployed information technology specialist, told the Times.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

These employers are telling the lazy bums that you're SOL. The job down at Taco Bell wasn't good enough for you in the mean time, so obviously you'd rather leech off of your previous employer/taxpayers.

Good for them.

[^_^ 5,021]

These employers are telling the lazy bums that you're SOL. The job down at Taco Bell wasn't good enough for you in the mean time, so obviously you'd rather leech off of your previous employer/taxpayers.

Good for them.

That's not what they're saying at all, genius. What they're saying is, your skillset is chit so f off.

Working at Taco Bell yields the same result.. skillset atrophy.

You're better off temping or consulting and keeping current.

Edited July 26, 2011 by \

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

These employers are telling the lazy bums that you're SOL. The job down at Taco Bell wasn't good enough for you in the mean time, so obviously you'd rather leech off of your previous employer/taxpayers.

Good for them.

I assume your talking about the long term unemployed? It seems unreasonable to call someone a lazy bum that was laid off a few weeks ago or even a few months ago

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Makes me happy I'm not a white collar worker. I would hate to have to deal with this petty ####### kissing type of ####### just to get a job.

[dalegg 143]

Are we going to have another protected class for the eeoc?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

That's not what they're saying at all, genius. What they're saying is, your skillset is chit so f off.

Working at Taco Bell yields the same result.. skillset atrophy.

You're better off temping or consulting and keeping current.

Too complex, AJ. You gotta take it down a notch.