Getting shunned because you’ve been jobless too long?
Are you getting shut out from jobs because you’ve been unemployed for a long time?
Even though about half of Georgia’s jobless have been unemployed for at least six months, some companies are telling them not to bother applying for open jobs at their firms, AJC staffer Dan Chapman reports. They’d rather pick from among the currently employed or recently unemployed.
Has this happened to you? Getting nowhere again and again?
What do you think of this practice? Justified because companies are getting flooded with resumes and have to have some criteria? Or an example of kicking people people when they’re already down?
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79 comments Add your comment
h
October 4th, 2010
12:58 pm
wait…..its your lunch hour. Can’t do any work now. Let me guess, you have 4 other windows open looking at ESPN, shopping at Macy’s and checking out accessatlanta for the best happy hour deals tonight.
FedUpToo
October 4th, 2010
12:59 pm
Dan Chapman’s cover story (”Long-Term Jobless Told Not To Apply”) on the front page of this morning’s AJC was excellent. I especially liked the fact that a copy of the actual job ad listing the “Unemployed Do Not Apply” verbiage appeared at the top of the cover story as well. That added a ton of additional credibility to the article.
Also, great coverage of all points of view, including Abacus’ response, and viewpoints from Judy Conti (National Employment Law Project), Jim Link (Randstad US), and the very weak back-peddling attempt on the part of Lauren Haralson (Sony Ericsson), who’s statement was quite typical: “Due to a miscommunication, a mistake was made.” Michael Brady’s response (Abacus) was also weak as well. Contrary to his statement, there are, in fact, many ways to weed out undesirable candidates in the hiring process, regardless of their current employment status. I know, because I have done that job in the past.
The implication being made by these employers is that all long-term jobless candidates are less valuable workers, which, as a result of this extensive recession and down-turned economy, is so far from the reality of available talent, skills and experience being offered in today’s pool of job applicants. The great majority of long-term unemployed workers are hungry, eager to work, eager to please, and will make truly dedicated and loyal employees.
I was also quite “disappointed” in Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond’s lackluster (but certainly politically-correct) response that this employment tactic was “disappointing and troubling.” Wow, talk about taking a strong position against this tactic! If I were an employer, I certainly wouldn’t be overly concerned or worried about continuing this practice, given that wimpy response from the Commissioner. I expected better from Mr. Thurmond.
Once again, the AJC has provided its readers with an excellent, well-rounded view of an important issue. My only hope is that the state and/or the feds will take note and take action on this very questionable practice. To say the very least, it is totally unfair and certainly un-American. In my opinion, this practice is clearly discriminatory against the long-term unemployed, and it should be illegal.
tired of no job
October 4th, 2010
1:05 pm
We are just like so many others here. After my husband was unemployed for 14 months with no jobs in sight we lost our house that we had worked so hard for. My husband was offered not one but two positions within one week when he started looking in Florida, so needless to say, we moved. He is also in the 54 year old range. I have been unemployed for three months through no fault of my own. Since moving to Florida, I have a few really promising leads here. I don’t think I will be unemployed very long now that we have relocated. If we would have stayed in Atlanta we would literally be homeless by now. I have found that what people are saying on here is very true, there are no jobs in Atlanta anymore. For us, it was time to start thinking “outside the box” and looking for work in other states. I hope this helps someone because I really do understand the pain here. I have never been unemployed in 35 years until this year. It is tough out there. Good luck everyone.
Bmoney
October 4th, 2010
1:16 pm
Hey temp recruiter if possible where do you work? I’ll send over my CV-maybe we could work together on something. I have no problem temping as long as its enough to pay the rent, etc.
Hmmm ...
October 4th, 2010
1:22 pm
“Hmmmm, get back to work before your boss catches you on a blog….remember your too busy to respond…”
Hmmm … I think my boss knows! He’s a pretty nice guy if I do say so myself!
Hmmm ...
October 4th, 2010
1:27 pm
H said … “Oh wait…I fogot”
@ H You shouldn’t discriminate against yourself like that! You’ll never get a job that way!
The Grim Reaper
October 4th, 2010
1:34 pm
@Fedup- that was sarcasm, but as a business owner, I don’t think my boss will let me go just yet. Try reading my earlier posts and you will see that I sympathize with the unemployed who have to deal with the unfair hiring pratices. Good Luck with your job search.
JustMe
October 4th, 2010
1:46 pm
They’d rather pick from among the currently employed …
I just have to add that I find that portion of the sentence almost comical. What person in their right mind who has a job would quit it in this day and age? Seriously???!!!
Out of Work for 1 Year and Counting
October 4th, 2010
2:02 pm
Discrimination against a class of persons based on their status as “unemployed” is not illegal. There is no law prohibiting business from refusing to hire a person simply because they have been unemployed for 10 days or 10 years.
Discrimination against a person because of their race, color, nationality, religion, gender, age, handicap status, and veteran’s status is usually illegal.
Greta
October 4th, 2010
2:51 pm
I’ve always heard that it’s easier to get a job when you have one. So after TWO YEARS of being unemployed, I took a job as a substitute teacher at a preschool here in Atlanta. The pay is horrible, and I can’t see how people make ends meet, but it’s a job. So now when I apply for jobs in my field (journalism), news directors and etc say that I’ve been out of the business too long for them to hire me. I can still write and do the job, so just hire me! Some friends have suggested I don’t get the job because of my experience and that ND can’t afford me, but they can!
Legal Realist
October 4th, 2010
3:04 pm
Discriminating against the unemployed is not illegal.
HH
October 4th, 2010
3:09 pm
“They’d rather pick from among the currently employed … I just have to add that I find that portion of the sentence almost comical. What person in their right mind who has a job would quit it in this day and age? Seriously???!!!”
It’s called head hunting. I had one call me over the summer months, sounded great but I passed. I am sure they had a bevy of employed candidates to choose from and one of them took the offer. One thing is for sure, I was gracious about the offer so they would think of me again. I know it’s hard to stay positive, but if you don’t it could come back to bite you!
Sandra
October 4th, 2010
10:59 pm
I have been told that I live to far…even if it is only 10 miles. I live in Bartow County.
Jack
October 4th, 2010
11:23 pm
I am 53, and have experienced unemployment several times in my life, including a recent job loss. When I last lost a job, I went to all the employment meetings and job hunting groups, and something occurred to me. Most of those who had been out of work for awhile were out of work for a good reason. Many of them were very negative people, physically out of shape, socially inept, and vocationally inflexible. Most of them, despite warnings for years that the job market was tightening up (didn’t we go through this about 8-10 years ago??) STILL did nothing to prepare themselves for the worst.
Heck, if most of us older folks like me would just start exercising, quit eating so darned much, lose a few pounds and take care of yourselves, then the younger generation wouldn’t look down on us! There’s a reason our generation is looked at as slow, fat, and inflexible. It’s because we ARE! And you don’t need a gym membership either, so don’t use that as an excuse. Just get your butts out the door and start walking, and do some simple strengthening moves a couple times a week.
And don’t tell me that you’re frustrated because you’ll take a job doing anything, and still won’t get hired. The job still needs to fit the individual, so if you’ve been a VP of Doohickeys at Megatech Corp and you got downsized, don’t think you’re going to waltz into Petsmart and get a cashier’s job to pay the bills for awhile. Besides, companies know that as soon as you get a job more in line with your expectations and experience, you’re gone.
I have been downsized before, and always land on my feet. Why? Because I keep myself trim and healthy, my outlook positive, my skills current, my resume fresh, and my contacts updated. Something quite a few of my peers could do as well.
Kill all HR people
October 5th, 2010
12:07 am
I was laid off from a good job in the fall of 2000, and was unable to find anything other than a pair of crappy car-sales jobs in 2003. Between fall of 2000 and May of 2005, I sent out hundreds of resumes, getting little to no response; one evil HR told me to re-do my resume, I asked if I did that, would she interview me, and she still said no…
In 2005, I left Atlanta broke and had to move back in with my elderly mother in a small Alabama town where there are absolutely NO jobs, and none on the horizon. I spend my days as a caretaker for her. In the meantime, my brain and my talents are rotting away.
OxiClean
October 5th, 2010
12:34 am
The Feds should really look into this! Employers refusing to hire the long-term unemployed is the main reason the Congress is forced to extend unemployment benefits. If nothing else, these nitwit employers are placing a huge burden on taxpayers (worth BILLIONS of dollars).
Recent Air Force Vet Unemployed
October 5th, 2010
12:40 am
I’ve been searching for employment since separating from the Air Force on 1 September, but if these firms feel it serves their best interest, then so be it. We can’t continue to call ourselves the most free nation on earth if there is a law for every single situation which may be unfair to someone…
Everyone’s situation is different during these rough times, some even being desperate, but there are options out there. Start a small business, look at what your community needs and try and get a government contract to do the work, start a website, provide free advice, VOLUNTEER! The hardest way to ever get a job is by sending your resume out there to a company who only knows you in black and white, and I’m learning that the hard way, but you have to be proactive.
No one in AMERICA is REQUIRED to give you a job. That’s not the way this country became strong, and that’s not the way this country will strengthen in the future. Look at the remnants of the Soviet Union if you want to see what happens when government is in charge of getting the jobs out there, or just look at our current administration, or just look at how long it takes to get a government job when you’re a shoe-in (6 months)…
Let’s go back to the basics as a nation, and eliminate this entitled society in which we seem to currently live.
Unemployed after serving, and still glad to be an American!
Recent Air Force Vet Unemployed
October 5th, 2010
12:52 am
H
In response to your earlier post about “phantom” job listings. We live in a nearly free market…If you go to job sites which simply link to a thousand other sites, and begin to see a pattern, avoid those sites. They’ll lose marketing revenue since no one is clicking on the banners/links on their sites, and they’ll go away over time. If you just sit here and complain about it, it’s about like bitching to your subordinates about some serious issue with your boss. DO SOMETHING!
Truthpaste
October 5th, 2010
2:17 am
The hardest part about job searching is the online application practice. No one will look you in the face anymore, they just pull names from a database and decide. What if your credentials are above par, but something as simple as an ethnic name stops you at the door. You can’t prove it because everything is electronic. No matter if you were born here, has an extensive educational and work background. In this climate of politics and pundits, I can’t help wonder if too many syllables stops me at the door before I can even say, “I was born here.”
Soon All Will Know
October 5th, 2010
3:46 am
I love all the “tuff love” and downright unsympathetic comments that some have written in response to this article and issue. On the surface what it is a failure to really comprhend what has, and still is taking place in our economy.
Up until this so called Great Recession, it has been a given that if one wanted to work in the U.S. then honest work was always available. If there was a recession, history told us that once the business cycle rebounded, jobs would certainly follow.
Well folks, those givens no longer hold in contemporary times.It’s not your resume. It’s not your age. It’s none of the many excuses people like to repeat that essentially blame the victim.
There aren’t any jobs. Or there aren’t nearly enough jobs to substantially lower the current unemployment rate. Both political parties are lying to us. Cutting taxes and balancing the federal government’s budget are not going to magically create millions of jobs.
This isn’t the 90’s when President Clinton and Congress benefited from the jobs temporarily created by the Dot.Com bubble. This isn’t the early “aughts” when President Bush’s modest job creation (later erased) was driven primarily from the real estate bubble. The truth is that productivity continues to increase even as the economy has hemorrhaged millions of jobs and companies remain profitable so they don’t have to add workers.
Oh, and interest rates remain low.
Until the American people decide we’ve are serious about wanting to rebuild our economy, which means insisting upon actions such as rebuilding our manufacturing base, start addressing the impending student loan bubble,stopping the hocus-pocus of giving away tax cuts to people who don’t need (read :spend) them, insist upon greater partnership between workers and employers, and yes, a greater social safety net to take care of people so that they do not turn to anti-social behavior to survive while the economy is being rebuilt.
Lastly, even in a country as truly remarkable as ours, we can’t afford to just write of tens of millions of able-bodied (even if they are overweight) citizens and hope to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Time to put away the distractions that are the culture wars of the last century and recognize that we need each and every person that is willing to be productive or things are going to get much worse and it will matter not who resides in the White House or what party controls the Congress and Supreme Court.
Wake. Up. People!
HR Guy
October 5th, 2010
6:02 am
Soon we will all know–try spellcheck and a grammar lesson. So many errors, it was painful to read.
It is not illegal to not hire someone because they are unemployed. Realistically, it is one way to reduce a large pool of applicants to a smaller number, just like number of years of experience, whether they live in same city as job, education or licenses/certifications.
The best way to find a job is networking through people you know. There are hundreds and at times thousands of applicants for one job. If you know someone inside a company who can speak up for you, that is the way to get hired. Filling out blind applications on the internet, will do nothing for you with the volume of applicants recruiters have to get through.
OxiClean
October 5th, 2010
6:51 am
It’s not their job to REDUCE THE NUMBER OF APPLICANTS………..it’s their job to HIRE THE MOST QUALIFIED!!!!! Hell, take all the applications you can get……………you don’t have to review them ALL! At least there won’t be this game of cat and mouse! Boo-hoo, you got lots of applications! SO WHAT! WE ARE IN A RECESSION…………..WHAT DO YOU EXPECT!!! At least it’s job security for HR personnel! There are already 5 applicants (not 5 applications), for every job opening! Translation……………not everyone will get a job, but at least they can try. This practice just makes it even harder and increases the number of long term unemployed……….b/c believe me, every short term unemployed person will not get hired, making them a new member of the long term unemployed in the future. Networking is code for GOOD OLE BOY system and should be illegal as far as I’m concerned! It also has a disparate impact on minorities and those outside the “circle”. If you have a job, please refrain from posting comments on this blog………..you cannot relate…….period!
OxiClean
October 5th, 2010
6:57 am
Creating some off-the-wall criteria JUST to reduce the number of applicants WILL NOT ensure that the best (and most qualified) person gets the job! They are simply trying to justify limiting the number of applications through a very misguided, insensitive, and disingenuous concept!
tim
October 5th, 2010
7:37 am
How many new graduates get churned out every year?
Executive Recruiter
October 5th, 2010
9:33 am
Enter your comments here
Jim Z.
October 5th, 2010
10:10 am
Not hiring unemployed people? This is utter foolishness. It’s the reason why Georgia’s economy stinks today.
Jim Z.
October 5th, 2010
10:20 am
I’m leery about hiring an “employed” person looking for a new job.
What employed person would be out on the prowl looking for a new job in this awful economy. Clearly,
anyone who is willing to risk leaving his current job for another one in this unstable economy couldn’t be that great of an employee. Either his current employer won’t pay him what he’s worth( which says quite a bit about his value to the company), or he’s not a good performer.
job lead here
October 5th, 2010
10:34 am
Best advice on the planet: Go to CareerBuilder.Com and enter a profile. You will get 15-20 Insurance Sales offers in your inbox within 7 days! (Even if your profile contains the sentence ‘I do not wish to be solicited for Insurance Sales Positions’). That shows you how little human interaction there is in the “e-” world today.
Amy Lewis
October 8th, 2010
8:29 pm
Us GM employees were discriminated agents last year when we released. However, the story for publication is that they got rid of low performers. My group provides engineering solutions to all of the other groups. The people that were released were in the top 1% of all of the employees. The back story is that we were released because most nearly all of us had pensions that could be collected in a very short number of years and GM did not have the money. It was being invested in new stuff and they did not want to be charged with Ricco. Problem solved, and the government will do nothing.