Unemployed need not apply

Unemployed need not apply

One of the worst things about the plague of unemployment is that the longer a person is out of work, the harder it becomes to re-enter the work force. Technology moves on; skills fade.

It always has been easier to move from one job to another than to move to a job from unemployment. But the problem has been compounded by the depth of the Great Recession, a glut of workers, at every conceivable skill level, and a paucity of jobs. Of about 4.4 million unemployed Americans, about 1.75 million have been out of work for more than a year.

As reported in Time magazine, a hearing by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission earlier this year revealed that many employers have advertised jobs listing current employment as a condition for even applying.

Employers should be free to hire according to their own criteria, but not to discriminate based on unemployment, especially given near-cataclysmic economic events over the last three years.

Rep. Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat, has introduced the Fair Employment Act of 2011. It would amend the Civil Rights Act to stop employers from refusing to hire people on the basis of unemployment alone.

That's a fair step toward giving a break to people who need one the most.