In the job hunt, the stigma of being laid off is hard to erase

In a makeshift bedroom in her parents’ house, Lynette Harper applies for another job.

Chicago, IL - November 17, 2010 -- She’s filled out 200 applications since being laid off from her senior manager position at Marriott Hotels in 2008. To avoid becoming homeless, the independent 38-year-old mother mustered the courage to do the unthinkable: move back to her family’s home in Illinois

More than 850 miles away in Buffalo, New York, Jennifer Matthews, 47, is counting down the weeks — about four she figures — until her unemployment checks stop coming. Allstate eliminated her vice president position in February 2009. Even with her 30 years of insurance experience, she’s been rejected by dozens of insurance companies — unable to even land an interview.

These two women may be states apart, but they’re bound together by the scarlet letter of unemployment in the worst economic downfall since the Great Depression. Harper and Matthews, both frustrated and disheartened, said they believe they are being shunned by potential employers and recruiters because of their unemployed status.

“I’ve heard people say, ‘You’re unemployed, so why bother,’ ” said Harper.

“You’re in a lose-lose situation in a lot of ways.”

As if securing work in a jobless recovery isn’t tricky enough, being labeled unemployed brings additional obstacles. Some companies state explicitly that they don’t want to consider people who don’t currently have a job, a CNNMoney article reported this month.

It’s not against the law, labor attorneys say, to discriminate against people who are unemployed.

Some recruiters interviewed say companies perceive the unemployed as weak performers or fickle workers. Or they worry that a person without a job has rusty work skills, especially if they haven’t worked for more than six months. Or that an unemployed person will take a lower paying job out of desperation and then flee when a better job opportunity arises.

“When you are unemployed, you are an in a defensive position and you have to defend why you are unemployed,” said Patricia Michaels, CEO of PKL Consulting, a national sales recruiting firm. “It’s more difficult to be aggressive and positive.”

Jaime Reynolds, editor at Job-Hunter, explained a distinction hiring managers and recruiters make.

Unemployed applicants searching for jobs are sometimes viewed as “active job seekers,” while employed individuals, who are not looking, are as “passive job seekers.” Some companies prefer passive job seekers because they are perceived as more happy and secure in their current job and therefore more selective about any new position they accept, she said.

“I do believe there is a bias in the workplace against unemployed candidates,” said Jim Thomas, Senior Manager at recruiting firm Collier+Vinson, LLP. His recruiting firm has worked with a few clients who have discreetly avoided the resumes of the unemployed, he said.

Whether the stereotypes around the unemployed are true or false, it’s not making the job hunting conditions any easier for the nearly 15 million jobless Americans. About one out of 10 people in the U.S. over the age of 16 were unemployed in May 2010, a slight increase from the same time period the year before, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And those who are jobless are already seeking new employment, which means competition is tough in a labor market where companies are still downsizing. About 13 million unemployed individuals are seeking full time employment, the BLS said.

Full economic recovery is expected to take at least five years and companies are being conservative when it comes to hiring. For every job opening, there are approximately five unemployed workers waiting to fill the gap, according to an analysis performed by BLS.

“This is the only thing we’ve seen that is this deep and this long,” Thomas said. “The recovery is going to be slow and rocky.”

Many companies will consider hiring jobless applicants, said Harold Upchurch, an independent recruiter at iExecutives for more than two decades. He thinks many employers have become more understanding because job cuts are so widespread.

With more than 2,400 e-mails corresponding with potential employers, Richard Timmons, 56 and unemployed in Maryland, said most companies have been understanding about his unemployment status. He lost his senior project manager job at a hospital in January 2009.

But unemployment discrimination exists, he said. He recalled an incident this spring, when a hiring manager wrote him a rejection e-mail that cited his “long period of unemployment.”

“I just kind of let it go,” he said. “I believe the right opportunity will come around and you can’t go with the highs and lows of this hiring process.”

To overcome the stigma of unemployment, Thomas, suggests the unemployed find temporary jobs, earn degrees or volunteer to keep themselves active.

“I think unemployed people probably need to be busier than ever,” he said. “In addition to looking for a job, they need to spend a lot of time building up their human capital.”

Lynette Harper, who was a senior manager in human resources at Marriott, said she’s been taking an online MBA course to boost her resume. Her job was cut about two years ago to help the company cut costs. She harbors no bitterness toward her old company, saying Marriott was a solid workplace. But she’s upset that she still cannot find a new job to support her baby.

“I applied for lower level human resource jobs,” Harper said. “The feedback was, ‘You will jump ship.’ ”

“Other comments are related to challenging the boss’ authority if I have more experience in that area.”

Some of the unemployed — regardless of the new label they bear — are hopeful they will one day get a full-time job. Jennifer Matthews, who once worked at the vice president level Allstate, broadened her search in the dismal job market. She says she will search outside of Boston, where her husband and teenager live, and consider pursuing a job in New York. That means she will have to commute home each weekend.

She already applied to several insurance jobs in New York City this month.

After all, she was once told that, “If you have Allstate on your resume, you can go anywhere. It’s like going to Harvard. You can write your own ticket.”

Contact :
Collier+Vinson, LLP
Headquarters
70 West Madison Street
Chicago, Illinois 60602-4270
Phone: 1-888-417-3514
Fax: 1-888-417-3514
info@colliervinsononline.com
http://www.colliervinsononline.com

Some of the unemployed — regardless of the new label they bear — are hopeful they will one day get a full-time job. Jennifer Matthews, who once worked at the vice president level Allstate, broadened her search in the dismal job market. She says she will search outside of Boston, where her husband and teenager live, and consider pursuing a job in New York. That means she will have to commute home each weekend.

Collier+Vinson, LLP
Headquarters
70 West Madison Street
Chicago, Illinois 60602-4270
Phone: 1-888-417-3514
Fax: 1-888-417-3514
info@colliervinsononline.com
http://www.colliervinsononline.com

This release was published on openPR.