The Vicious Cycle of Unemployment

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.

Cleaning Out the Links Part 5

We're back for some more links and we're starting with the New York Times which is reporting that there are big obstacles for the anonymous tips of misdeeds: "A study published in The Journal of Management Studies has found that corporate audit committee members attributed lower credibility and allocated fewer resources for investigations when reports of malfeasance were received through anonymous tips, compared with nonanonymous reports. The study also found that the audit committee members were more concerned with protecting themselves than shareholders if they faced considerable damage to their reputations as a result of a tip, a clear violation of their fiduciary duties."

Now we head to onwallstreet which talks about the retirement "Catch-22": too young to retire and too old to get hired. Age discrimination is hard to prove but is pretty prevalent in this economy.

Lastly, for everyone looking for a job right now, they probably agree with this FINS article which says that job hunting is often one step forward...and two steps back.

Jobs You Want and Jobs To Stay Away From

That's the theme of our Friday links as we get you ready for the weekend on the day a decade-old age discrimination suit was settled by the TV networks and studios according to The Wrap

Fortune and CNNMoney have the 100 best companies to work for--which may be an even more important list than the Fortune 500.

Glassdoor.com has their list of the best 50 places to work for (I wonder how many of those overlap...?)

Media Bistro (the website where I actually found this job and why I'm blogging to you right now) has a list of the most desired media jobs of 2009

Complain about your job? FoundValue Blog has 10 jobs they promise are worse than yours (though I know a LOT of people who would want #10).

The Springfield News-Leader has 10 steps to workplace happiness from some great professionals in the field.

Have a great weekend!

15,000 and counting

Thanks for continuing to make our blog popular! 15,000 visitors and counting...

We start off with the Wall Street Journal's Career Journal with an article about finding a position as a mature job hunter (and conversely, HR professionals should think about how to seek out these candidates): click here

Also from the Journal we have an article on a consultant beefing up his resume (click here ) and a CEO's recipe for fresh ideas: click here

Lastly, GM is offering employees early retirement to cut salaried jobs by 15% as told by the Baltimore Sun: click here

(another post coming up a bit later...)

Washington's Rulings

We go to Washington and the Washington Post for our blog articles for this Thursday...

First from the Post, word about the Supreme Court declaring that FedEx Workers can sue over age discrimination: click here

More from today on the same case (in some articles they called it ageism and some called it age bias...all the same idea) and some of the reasons involved and repercussions for Human Resources and what happened with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in the case: click here

Lastly from the Post on an unrelated topic, an article about an upside for the Middle Class: click here

Breaking News on Supreme Court Age Discrimination Case

We've been talking about it here for a while so wanted to update you by letting you know a ruling has come down in the Age Discrimination case seen before the Supreme Court and in a unanimous ruling, they have found in favor of the ex-employee (click here)

This is a big blow to businesses as the Associated Press (via Forbes) writes:

The Supreme Court is leaving the door open for workers in age discrimination cases to present supporting evidence from other employees at a company.

This, after a Washington Post analysis article from Sunday said that the Supreme Court Justices were further resisting finding the right to sue: click here

More later as news becomes available...

Updated: If you want to see the actual Supreme Court decision, check it out here on their website: click here

Updated: The StarTribune weighs in with some more information than the Forbes article, but a little easier for most of us to understand than the full Supreme Court decision: click here

More on Age Discrimination

Whether you call it Ageism (detailed here in full Wiki style) or age discrimination, you, as a Human Resource Professional, should be getting familiar with the idea, because the decisions made in Washington will have an impact on your business. Amazingly, this story is getting very little play in the national media outside of Washington. But we here at the Astron Solutions' blog found you the best articles to get you even more up-to-speed...

First, the Washington Post has a quick summary look at the Age Discrimination cases: click here

Next, an article about how the shield against reprisal after a bias claim was discussed by the Supreme Court: click here

On to Slate which has an article titled "Grumpy Old Men"...always an interesting read over there at Slate: click here

Lastly, Jurist, from University of Pittsburgh Law School, has the court cases for those
who want to see the legalese behind the lawsuits: click here

Too Old? Not in the Workplace

One of the forms of discrimination that may be more prevalent than people think and which many people know very little about is age discrimination.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has facts about age discrimination here: click here

And the United States Department of Labor has information here: click here

But this issue is not as cut and dry as many people would think. Recently my dad was unemployed for a while and while trying to get a new job, he did everything he could to hide his age because of his perceived bias on the part of the people who he was interviewing with.

And he's not the only one...the Supreme Court will hear five Age Discrimination cases according to the Washington Post: click here

The Christian Science Monitor also takes up the issue putting out the issue of: when can people sue for age discrimination: click here

Although this would seem to be a cut and dry area, many companies have policies against older employees and many fire older, tenured employees to bring in younger ones.

And then there's an article from the Boston Globe saying that colleges, companies, and state officials in Massachusetts are giving incentives for young people to stay in state: click here

Although this seems like a good, practical idea with many Baby Boomers retiring and a need for these young workers, how can giving these incentives to young workers and not to the older ones NOT be age discrimination? Would someone have a case against these organizations that provide this incentive?

We'll find out quite soon after the Supreme Court ruling...