PARIS, June 18 — Faced with the pressures of a tight job market, US employers are expanding recruitment to candidates with criminal records.
These job postings are labelled as applying “fair chance” hiring policies.
It’s a change that speaks volumes about the state of the current US job market.
Faced with a labour shortage caused by the so-called great resignation, many companies in the US are struggling to recruit.
As a result, they are broadening their criteria for finding candidates. Indeed, employers are now more likely to hire candidates with criminal backgrounds, according to analysis by the recruitment platform Indeed.
As a result, more and more ads are being posted with “fair chance” hiring policies.
AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist writing for the recruitment platform Indeed’s Hiring Lab, reports that in May 2022, the percentage of “fair chance” job postings increased by 31 per cent compared to May 2019.
Today, 2.5 per cent of US job postings on the platform are marked “fair chance” hiring. This rate even reached 3.1 per cent last April, up from 1 per cent in early 2018.
“Employers practice fair chance hiring in a variety of ways, such as avoiding questions about criminal convictions until a conditional offer is made or disregarding arrests if a conviction was dismissed,” the specialist writes.
Other recruiters are reducing a candidate’s background check to one year, instead of seven years. In the US, between 70 and 100 million people have criminal records, and 87 per cent of employers run background checks on applicants, according to Hiring Lab.
This new approach seems to open up possibilities for jobseekers with past arrests or brushes with the criminal justice system. Such candidates often face discrimination due to their past actions. More than 60 per cent of previously incarcerated people are unemployed one year after their release.
According to Indeed figures, between May 2019 and May 2022, job searches containing phrases like “fair chance,” “no background check,” or “felon friendly” increased by 117 per cent.
“The rising employment of people with criminal records may have a beneficial and long-lasting social impact,” explains AnnElizabeth Konke. “Research shows having a job helps reduce recidivism — so getting an ex-convict into the workforce could be a real plus for society.”
Nevertheless, while this broadening of the pool of potential candidates certainly helps remedy the labour shortage, it also helps employers keep wages low. Former inmates who find work reportedly earn around 40 per cent less than others. — ETX Studio
