First Comment

Back in February I wrote a blog post about the vicious cycle of unemployment where the unemployed find it harder and harder to get hired which just keeps them further away from being employed. Many states (like New Jersey) have gotten ahead of the federal government and has banned discrimination against the unemployed, but as a bill is going to be introduced before Congress banning this type of discrimination on a country-wide level, TIME Magazine took another look at what happens when companies refuse to hire the unemployed (H/T Wendy):

Refusing to hire people on the basis of race, religion, age or disability — among other categories — is illegal. But companies that turn away jobless people as a group are generally not breaking the law — at least for now.


Job seekers have long known, of course, that it's easier to land a job when you are still working. There are no hard data on discrimination against the unemployed. But there have been reports from across the country of companies' making clear in job listings that they are not interested in people who are out of work. Employment experts say other companies have policies of hiring only people with jobs — but do not publicly acknowledge their bias.

TIME did a lot of work in this issue profiling the out of work in America including profiles of some of those who are unemployed. Check it out and know that your refusal to hire someone who is unemployed could end up being illegal in the very near future.

Yesterday Astronology had a fabulous rundown of financial terms you might want to learn before talking to a CFO. I have a Masters in International Economics and Finance but even I need some help sometimes with understanding what certain financial terms mean. My favorite site to use as a refresher for financial terms is Investopedia which is basically a dictionary of financial terms.

One term that has been thrown around the news the past few years is "unemployment". But what type of person actually qualifies as "unemployed"? Is it the guy who is not searching for a job? Is it the woman who has been out of work two years? Who qualifies? Well, according to Investopedia: "Unemployment occurs when a person who is actively searching for employment is unable to find work. Unemployment is often used as a measure of the health of the economy. The most frequently cited measure of unemployment is the unemployment rate. This is the number of unemployed persons divided by the number of people in the labor force." If you want to find out more about unemployment and how it is calculated in the United States, follow that link above.

What about jobless claims? This morning the financial world was abuzz with news that initial jobless claims fell 10,000 last week. Investopedia explains: "The number of people who are filing or have filed to receive unemployment insurance benefits, as reported weekly by the U.S. Department of Labor. There are two categories of jobless claims - initial, which comprises people filing for the first time, and continuing, which consists of unemployed people who have been receiving unemployment benefits for a while. Jobless claims are an important leading indicator on the state of the employment situation and the health of the economy. Average weekly initial jobless claims are one of the 10 components of The Conference Board Leading Economic Index."

Again, taking these terms at their base level can be confusing or misleading but actually researching them can lead to a better understanding of the job market and about your current position. If you ever don't understand something, make sure to raise your hand and ask, because trust me, even people with Masters in the subject can sometimes use a refresher. 

For some it may seem easier to get a job if you're unemployed. Intuitively, the unemployed have more time to interview, are willing to accept lower salaries and have future employers who know they can start right away. But the large amount of unemployed in this recession has proven one thing: being unemployed is not a recipe for success in this economy. And the problem then becomes if you are unemployed and that prevents you from getting hired that the more this occurs, the further the unemployed fall from employability in many employer's eyes--it becomes a vicious cycle of unemployment.

This was recounted in a recent article on Yahoo! (H/T Wendy) which says that it's gotten so bad and so prevalent that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is trying to get "unemployed" as another factor you can't discriminate against a candidate: "With the number of Americans who have been out of work for six months or longer at a whopping 6.2 million, and with 4.7 unemployed workers for every job opening, advocates for the jobless say this growing form of hiring discrimination creates another hurdle for the increasingly desperate ranks of the unemployed. 'At a moment when we all should be doing whatever we can to open up job opportunities to the unemployed, it is profoundly disturbing that the trend of deliberately excluding the jobless from work opportunities is on the rise,' Christine Owens, who runs the National Employment Law Center, told the EEOC."

The article hints that it may also be a case of racial or age discrimination as many more of the unemployed are African American or older, the former of which would also violate civil rights laws. This is not an issue that is going away and yet many job postings online still prohibit those who are unemployed for applying. Do the skills actually go away? Does the fact that everyone was downsizing mean those laid off are actually the weakest link? Probably not but it gives employers a good excuse when the volume of resumes continues to pile up.

At the very least, articles like this should give HR professionals some pause and to rethink their hiring practices. Because while this is an employers market, the last thing you want is to get in trouble with the government because of your hiring practices.

We'll actually lead-off with the last one in the subject line. Today more and more people are accessing the web via a smartphone and here at Astron Solutions, we understand the need to do so. So we've developed a new mobile site for you to use that should work very easily on your Blackberry, iPhone, Droid or other smartphone. Go to http://astronsolutionsworldofhr.blogspot.com/?m=1 and you should have a nice, clean mobile site to use. Eventually, you should be able to just go to our regular blog address and access the mobile site but for right now, that address is the best one to use.

If you work for or own a small business, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that things will start to look brighter in 2011...but old problems will still remain: "Companies, helped by a loosening in the credit markets as well as improvements in consumer spending, are showing some interest in raising prices and hiring new employees. But most improvements are expected to be marginal, likely benefiting only the healthiest small businesses while the rest continue to struggle, relying on survival tactics adopted during the recession, such as deep discounts to lure customers and operating with fewer hands."

Also before you start cheering the "great" unemployment data from today (the largest drop in unemployment since 1998), read this Forbes article and realize that unemployment rate is always a flawed figure: "The big drop in the unemployment rate did not come from all of the new jobs created (which were largely in hospitality and health care, with 25,000 new bartenders and waitresses minted in December and 36,000 health professionals finding work) but simply from the erasure of unemployed people from the rolls."

Stay dry on this snowy Friday and have a great weekend!

Yesterday President Barack Obama pushed 20 CEOs to "start investing in job creating enterprises." According to the Wall Street Journal, though, "nearly half of the executives [in a quarterly survey by the Business Roundtable]—45%—expected to hire within the next six months, compared with 31% who said that last quarter." As the article says, US businesses are sitting on $2 trillion in cash. Although slack demand is adding to their reluctance, hopefully a new year means new jobs appearing in the market.

In good news this morning, Bloomberg is reporting that jobless claims in the US unexpectedly fell to 420,000 last week. The bad news, though: "the total number of people receiving unemployment insurance and those getting extended payments rose." So what does that mean for hiring in the new year? "Fewer firings signal employers may be gearing up to add to their payrolls and help reduce a jobless rate hovering near a 26-year high. While the economy is gaining momentum heading into 2011, Federal Reserve policy makers said this week it isn’t strong enough to reduce unemployment."

And if you decide to look for one of those jobs in the new year, Simply Hired Blog has the best 50 careers of 2011 (H/T Wendy).