In multiple job ads, one criteria was listed as: the unemployed need not apply.
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.
Sony Ericsson, a global phone manufacturer that recently announced that it would be bringing 180 new jobs to the Buckhead, Ga. area, also recently posted an ad for a marketing position on The People Place. The add specified: "NO UNEMPLOYED CANDIDATES WILL BE CONSIDERED AT ALL." When asked about the ad, a spokeswoman said, "This was a mistake, and once it was noticed it was removed."
Ads asking the unemployed not to apply are easy to find. A Craigslist ad for assistant restaurant managers in Edgewater, N.J. specifies, "Must be currently employed." Another job posting for a tax manager at an unnamed "top 25 CPA firm" in New York City contains the same line in all caps.
A company's choice to ignore unemployed applicants and recycle the current workforce ignores the effect of the recession on millions of highly-qualified workers and could prolong the unemployment crisis, said Judy Conti, federal advocacy coordinator for the National Employment Law Project.
"In the current economy, where millions of people have lost their jobs through absolutely no fault of their own, I find it beyond unconscionable that any employer would not consider unemployed workers for current job openings," she said. "Not only are these employers short-sighted in their search for the best qualified workers, but they are clearly not good corporate citizens of the communities in which they work. Increasingly, politicians and policy makers are trying to blame the unemployed for their condition, and to see this shameful propaganda trickle down to hiring decisions is truly sad and despicable."
As one commenter, Downix, posted, "...if you cannot move someonefrom the unemployed column to the employed, there will be a reduced pool of potential customers for whatever your product or service. Moving a person from one employed column to another keeps the pool of unemployed larger for no reason, resulting in diminished long term profitability. While it is within their right, so is bundling up unstable financial product in to bonds and then pawning them off as good investments. It gives you a short term view for it."
This practice should not be tolerated - not in today's economy. If these companies want to employ these practices (pardon the pun), then these companies should "not be considered" when we open up our wallets, deciding where to spend our meager dollars.
I would say that anytime anyone comes across an employment ad that states that the unemployed will not be considered, the company name should be put on a boycott list. That is, if it's not a blind ad.
I am making a plea to all who discover any of these ads to post the company names in the comments below. Please be sure to provide a link to the offending ad. If at all possible, be sure to take a screen shot and email to me at the link on the sidebar. I will post all screenshots of any ads that require this disgusting (dis)qualification (provided that the company name is clearly visible in the screen shot).
This will not happen without YOU, dear reader. Please... spread this far and wide. Send to your friends. Repost on other websites. Let's refuse to "hire" these companies with our wallets.
UPDATE: The original, offensive job posting, courtesy of WABE newscast, Public Broadcasting.
Was this job posting the fault of Sony Ericsson or The People Place, their online job posting agency?
UPDATE 2
Here is a FABULOUS idea from HP commenter dobleremolque: I sense an entrepreneurial opportunity here. Let's see...I'll create a social networking site called "Employmentbook", and hire you! You fill out what your duties and skills are. We pay you no salary or benefits, but file all the paperwork for employer payroll deductions at a salary of $0, and give you $0 sum W-2s each January.
And when you apply, you don't have to lie. Yes, you are currently employed and when they contact us to verify, we tell them ONLY employment start date and nothing more. Just like in the real world.
Now...lemme register that web domain...
And when you apply, you don't have to lie. Yes, you are currently employed and when they contact us to verify, we tell them ONLY employment start date and nothing more. Just like in the real world.
Now...lemme register that web domain...
Thanks, dobleremolque! Just the right amount of humor we need for such an outrageous topic!
Be a better human.
NEW POST up!
22 comments:
"Spread this far and wide".
'Am on it...
Pardon the anonymous comment. Employers' vengeance knows no limits.
Understood. Hoping I don't sabotage myself with the post.
And thanks. Very, very much!
How can this be legal? Now that the SCOTUS has clarified for us that corporations are "people", are they not held to non-discriminatory hiring practices? Wouldn't this be a civil rights violation--looks like legal trouble to me. But then, I didn't realize that corporations are people, with all of the rights of citizens. Still processing that revelation.
NancyD,
Unfortunately, there is nothing in our anti-discrimination laws to prevent employers from doing this.
But on an ethical level, it's just plain wrong. That's why I want to publicly name these companies. Please send this post link to anyone looking for a job. They might come across such an ad...
Here's a job posting that doesn't want you if you've been unemployed more than 6 months.
Ad is posted by PATRICE & ASSOCIATES and provides a contact name (PJ Andrews) and a contact telephone number (919-426-5875).
http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?IPath=QHKCV&ff=21&APath=2.21.21.0.0&job_did=J8B1TH6V54MPWRZRVPV
Ad specifically states:
"All of our jobs require the following for
Restaurant Managers:
2 years as a salaried manager with a like concept restaurant
No more than 2 jobs in past 5 years, 3 jobs in past 9-10 years
$ 2 million or greater Annual Sales Volume Experience
Currently employed, or recently unemployed (3-6 months)
Valid Driver License
HS Diploma
No DUI’s or Criminal Records
"
Thanks, Anon 11:41
I think a phone call to this gentleman is in order. Will update the post shortly.
Boycotting is too haphazard a tactic. It relies on prolonged, coordinated effort by thousands of people to have any meaningful impact. A more immediate and effective tactic is to bombard these employers with bogus resumes. A handful of folks could generate scores of fake resumes tailored to the specifications of each offending ad, thereby sending the HR departments on costly wild goose chases that tie up manpower for days or weeks without producing any viable candidates. And the employers would have no choice but to either contact every "promising candidate" (for fear of passing over a legit applicant who meets their requirements) or abandon the search entirely and do without the needed personnel.
Carli-For these outfits to post something so specific still looks discriminatory to me. Most discrimination in hiring is, unfortunately, easy to hide. Age discrimination in particular is notoriously difficult to prove in court because there are lots of dodgy ways of explaining it away. But this creates a "class" of people. This explicitly spells out a capricious way of eliminating qualified applicants. You couldn't say "no redheads need apply", "not accepting applications from people born in Indiana", "no applicants with divorced parents". This seems like a class action looking for a student legal clinic. Legal eagles need to descend on these paper-pushers.
Anonymous that is a great idea bombard those sleazy companies with hundreds of bogus resumes. I also agree with nancydrew. I think that some lawyer should start a class action law suit.
Ok folks, having Internet issues. Will update blog as soon as I'm back up.
Carli
-sent from my iPhone
NancyD and Anon 9:00,
If we could start a class action lawsuit, I'm sure many would opt in. The sad fact is, companies have been doing this for decades, but this is a different world now. To decline unemployed candidates now, in this economy, is shameful.
It would take a very sharp, cut-throat attorney to prove these companies are breaking discrimination laws.
We haven't created a new class of people. We just expanded it - poverty level citizens.
BTW, NEW POST UP!
I doubt seriously that a class action suit would hold water. What it would do (If you found a lawyer or firm willing to take on the expense of launching a CAS) is provide some fodder for you to keep the cause in the public's eye.
FYI...there is nothing here that discriminates against, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs or the number of animals you own. In that regard it discriminates equally...
I'm just saying --
Ben
Ben,
I worded that incorrectly. I should have said "If it was feasible to... but it's not". As you stated, it does not go against any current discrimination laws.
But I did make that same point wayyyyyy up above in an earlier comment.
Hey it's me, puddlethumper... nice to see this site... maybe we should try to get media coverage heheheh... :D
OK. I am unemployed. So, I registered for the H&R Block tax course so I can get some work next tax reason. Well, they called and told me that they would drop me from the class.
Not that I would ever take my tax to H&R Block. But if I ever need to, I would take it somewhere else.
Is there a list of these companies somewhere? How will people know who to boycott?
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