Unemployed seek protection against job bias
Marion Star – After two years on the unemployment rolls, Selena Forte thought she’d found a temporary job at FedEx that matched her qualifications.
But Forte, a 55-year-old from Cleveland, says a job recruiter for a temporary agency told her the company wouldn’t consider her because she had been out of work too long. She had lost her job driving a bus.
“They didn’t even want to hear about my experience,” said Forte. “It didn’t make sense. You’re always told just go out there and get a job.”
Forte, scraping by now as a part time substitute school bus driver, is part of a growing number of unemployed or underemployed Americans who complain they are being screened out of job openings for the very reason they’re looking for work in the first place. Some companies and job agencies prefer applicants who already have jobs, or haven’t been jobless too long.
