On July 12, House reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) introduced groundbreaking legislation that would prohibit discrimination against the unemployed in hiring. The Fair Employment Opportunity Act of 2011, H.R. 2501, bans both employers and recruiters from refusing to consider unemployed applicants. This legislation is sorely needed: It has become commonplace in this recession for employers to refuse to consider applicants who are not employed at the time of application. A quick search of Craigslist’s employment postings on July 9 revealed that positions as varied as restaurant manager in Detroit; part-time cook in Arlington, Va.; tax manager in a New York City certified public accounting firm; and marketer with a company in Salem, Ore., all required applicants to be currently employed. This policy has tragic consequences for unemployed job seekers, reinforces a permanent underclass and may well subject employers to claims of discrimination based on a disparate-impact theory of discrimination, given that it has the hardest impact on older workers, disabled workers, racial minorities and women.
That this trend has emerged during an enduring recession is perhaps not surprising. However, it is particularly alarming to think that this trend is growing even as the labor market fails to turn itself around. The Department of Labor’s monthly report on jobs and unemployment for June astounded economists of all stripes. The report, issued on July 8, showed that several major industries shrank; indicators that typically grow before employers begin to add more jobs, such as wages and number of hours in an average work week, also shrank. The unemployment rate rose to 9.2%, the highest in 2011, up from 9.1% in May.
