It is becoming increasingly difficult, according to many studies, for unemployed persons to find employment if they disclose that they are “unemployed”. As a result, legislation has recently been introduced on the state and federal level to make amendments to the law so that a person is in a “protected classification” if they are “unemployed”.
In California one bill has been introduced (AB 1450) and two bills have been introduced in Congress (HR 2501 and S1471) which seeks to include “unemployed” as a protected classification in the laws protecting workers from discrimination and which would prohibit an employer from using a person’s unemployed status at the time of applying for a job as a negative criteria in the hiring process.
“Protected Classifications” are those characteristics of a person which are not permitted to be considered for employment related purposes such as age, race, national origin, gender, etc. If being “unemployed” becomes a “protected classification” it is likely that many employers will be facing litigation for “failure to hire” by those individuals who have applied for employment, disclosed their “unemployed” status and were not hired.
The burden for employers if this were to occur is how to defend against such claim asserting that the “unemployed” status had no relevance to the decision not to hire the person.
It will become more critical than ever for hiring practices to be consistent, for hiring managers to be trained on the do’s and don’ts during the interview/hiring process and for the employer to document all job related inquiries and information that was evaluated in the hiring process.