This Week In Jobless Discrimination: Unemployed Applicants Might 'Be Tempted To Steal'

An office manager in Phoenix, Arizona, posted a Craigslist ad this week for a part-time cleaner to tidy up at night. The manager needs somebody who's older than 25, has a car, cell phone, no criminal background and is "currently employed."

That requirement may seem like a Catch-22 for the nation's nearly 15 million jobless, but it's a surprisingly common one. HuffPost has been chronicling this phenomenon by combing the web for job ads that use language such as "Must be currently employed" or "No unemployed applicants will be considered," and this week discovered several such job postings on craigslist and Monster.com.

A staffing agency representing a "world leader in the medical industry" is advertising for a San José-based product salesman on Monster.com, but the person "must be currently employed."  This significantly narrows the pool of potential applicants, as California's unemployment rate, the nation's third-highest, hovered at 12.4 percent in September.

A "Big Box" retail giant in New York City posted a Craigslist ad for an overnight freight flow manager who "must be currently employed for consideration," a manufacturing company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina specified on Monster.com that it will not consider any unemployed applicants for a Senior Pricing Analyst position.

And a CPA firm in New Jersey said "DO NOT APPLY IF YOU ARE NOT CURRENTLY EMPLOYED IN PUBLIC ACCOUNTING" in its ad on craigslist.

It's not illegal, but a New Jersey assemblyman wants to make it that way. A bill proposed by Assemblyman Peter Barnes (D-Middlesex) earlier this month would impose fines of up to $10,000 for companies if they post job ads that say unemployed applicants shouldn't bother applying.

HuffPost reached out to all of the employers and staffing agencies who posted the above ads, but only one of them could be reached for comment. The Phoenix office manager explained his reluctance to hire unemployed people in an e-mail, saying it's in the best interest of both him and the jobless person to not try to work together.

"It is only a small part-time job," he wrote. "It will not do much to support someone who is unemployed, but it will detract from any benefits they may be getting.  Additionally, I never want to put a person in a situation where they, being in survival mode many times, would be tempted to steal. An unemployed person needs a full-time job and more often than not, the part-time work will interfere with that job search."

Comments

[Indra]

02:22 PM on 11/01/2010

The lack of jobs will continue. Most people who are out of work now will be out of work six months from now. Obama has done nothing to get people back to work. Congress has done nothing to get people back to work. We are about to see how cruel our country really is. A lot of people are going to be surprised when they find out that no one really gives a hoot about them. A lot more marriages will break up, more people will resort to selling drugs and thievery to make some money. The situation does hnot look good and it is interesting that Obazma and his friends can't see any of this coming!

[twinkledawnn]

06:13 PM on 11/04/2010

Yeah. And if they think things are bad now just wait to see how much "better" they become with the Repubs house majority. Obama had plugged the hole from the Bush job lossess and the economy has been trending upward but come January it will trend backwards. People should pay closer attention to who might actually help or hurt them before voting for the people who have none of their best interests in mind.

[PWM]

05:31 PM on 10/26/2010

"A means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions or property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right." - Thomas Jefferson, 1785

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower

[PWM]

05:29 PM on 10/26/2010

It seems to be a campaign to keep the unemployed - unemployed.

[Dellany Hall]

01:28 PM on 10/26/2010

Now that is what I call adding insult to injury in that if you are unemployed already and looking for work then you will not be considered for work "BECAUSE" you are unemployed? now exactly how much sense does that make? things just keep getting farther out there in left field. Being unemployed does not make a person "a thief" or more likely to steal, it would however make them more likely to actually show UP for work and work all the hours they could get. What has our nation come to in that the unemployed are labeled like this? God help us all.

[signgrrl]

01:21 PM on 10/26/2010

no, living on the streets will make being presentable for work much harder. what a stupid policy.

[Carrie Krueger]

05:25 PM on 10/25/2010

This whole “Unemployed need not apply” thing keeps cropping up. Fortunately the reality is that it is not common. Yes, it’s insulting and wrong when it happens. But job seekers should not fixate on the possibility that they will be excluded from consideration because they are out of work. Instead they should focus on filling this employment gap productively, sharpening skills, and adding successes to their resume. Here are some suggestions for how to do that and make the most of this time: http://bit.ly/a8qwXj . It’s an incredibly challenging time to be out of work. But there are success stories too. Let’s focus on what is working to get people back to work.

[twinkledawnn]

06:16 PM on 11/04/2010

It needs to be regulated by caling it what it is: discrimination.

[Diane Brennan]

01:08 PM on 10/25/2010

I would like to see some stories about the decrease in wages for middle class workers. Microsoft is decreasing wages for contractors by 25% in the last two months.

[aepluribus]

11:26 AM on 10/25/2010

Wow, what an article! America is extremely good at one thing and that is finding a group of people with similarities and then exploit those commonalities. An unemployed person need not apply is a new low I could have never imagined. Have you ever read a job posting that states if you are here "undocumented" no need to apply. Of course not, America would not tolerate undocumented works being insulted that way and undocumented immigrant workers have more rights than so called Americans who have lived in this countries for centuries. America is done, stick a fork in her.

[tinman1967]

11:33 AM on 10/25/2010

No we wouldn't want to insult an illegal. We'd want to put them up in government housing and give them food stamps.

[marind]

09:51 AM on 10/25/2010

Ah capitalism. It's so much fun to kick people when they are down.

[twinkledawnn]

06:17 PM on 11/04/2010

Ah fascism.

[DushanRadovic]

09:08 AM on 10/25/2010

To the unemployed: How'd that laying around on the sofa for 99 weeks watching Oprah work out for you?

[outofstepper]

09:15 AM on 10/25/2010

Just because that is the way you operate doesn't mean others do.

Sounds like projection to me.

[tinman1967]

11:28 AM on 10/25/2010

I've met unemployed people who said they would never take a job as long as they were getting unemployment. Paying 99 weeks of benefits is insane. I can't believe people have the nerve to accept it but welfare is so very addictive.

[moose and squirrel]

06:50 PM on 10/26/2010

and then there is the vast majority of unemployed who would prefer going back to their careers than receiving less than 50% of what they used to get paid.

[twinkledawnn]

06:19 PM on 11/04/2010

I've met unemployed people that desparately want a job and can't find one because the corporations have shipped them all overseas where labor and taxes are cheaper. I can't believe people have the nerve to accept unemployment. It would be smarter of them to pass and live on the streets.

[Lorianne]

09:02 AM on 10/25/2010

U.S. To Train 3,000 Asian IT Workers offshore
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/integration/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226500202&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News

Now It's Armenia: USAID Funds IT In Eurasia http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/disaster_recovery/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226600094

General Motors To Invest $500M In Mexico Plant
http://www.industryweek.com/articles/gm_to_build_new_vehicle__at_plant_in_mexico_22462.aspx

[Lorianne]

08:44 AM on 10/25/2010

60 Minutes: Real Unemployment at 17%
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6987699n&tag=contentBody;housing

[tinman1967]

11:34 AM on 10/25/2010

Yes, I'd say 17% or maybe higher. Big Brother...the great liar.

[j238]

08:16 AM on 10/25/2010

Making it illegal to advertise "unemployed need not apply" won't solve anything. Companies will still be able to discriminate unfairly in the hiring process.

[ShanaJuly]

07:58 AM on 10/25/2010

Good morning Democrats. Well, the republicans, pundits and the media have begun their final push to tick you off and make you stay home. We have a front page that is kicking up the anger of the gay folks, this one on the unemployed folks, poor folks, white folks, black folks, you name it the three cohorts are stirring the pot.

The meme has always been President Obama has done nothing to help anybody. They don't talk about anything he has done but yet they can talk hours about what he hasn't done to fix the mess republicans left. Every day in the media tells you republicans are the answer to your woes. They know how to fix the mess they made. There is one thing and one thing in play here and it is republican control so they can serve their masters. If republicans ever get control of the congress and WH and maintain control of the conservative Supreme Court, this country is truly doomed.

I hope we have a Guy Fawkes among us because we are going to need him eventually. V for Vendetta...get your mask ready it's coming in the form of the GOTP.

[SrAN]

05:21 AM on 10/25/2010

I am 26 years old and found myself unemployed for several months (thankfully my military background and security clearance came in handy and I now have a state job). During that time I welcome multiple part time jobs. I made the money work since it was more than I would get on unemplyment. I can't believe these people. This is why we are in the position that we are in because businesses and corporations are greedy SOB's. I ran into these problems as well, I need not apply since I was unemployed or they were not looking for people with my skill set (though my skill set matched what they asked for in their ad) or I was overqualified. So many excuses not to hire someone...sad.