There Really Is A Stigma Against The Long-Term Unemployed

There's a real stigma associated with people who have been out of work for more than six months or those who are prone to job hopping.

To find out how hiring managers view these candidates, economist Rand Ghayad conducted an experiment where he sent out 4,800 fictitious résumés for 600 job openings.

Ghayad found that managers would rather hire people with no relevant job experience than someone who's been unemployed for a long time or has had several jobs in a short period of time.

The resumes sent out described candidates looking work for different reasons across several industries, but all were all male, had racially ambiguous names and similar education backgrounds.

Below is a chart from the paper illustrating how little it matters if you have experience in the industry you're applying for because "the first thing employers look at is how long you've been out of work, and that's the only thing they look at if it's been six months or longer," writes Matthew O'Brien at The Atlantic.

“Hm, do you have any advice for us “young `uns” who’re basically being shit on, entry-level jobs requiring “X years of experience”?’

We all bring different things to the table but there are some commonalities that IMO are helpful.

I too started out at the bottom while getting my education, which to be honest only gets you in the door, and made sure my boss knew it when I said I would do something or would show up on time.

That is the most basic start. You have to be trusted and dependable. When the boss wants something done he/she will turn to you not an untrustworthy coworker.

If you bring value to the table, you will not be at the entry level for long and if you are, that is not the company for you, move on.

After that, it is a function of skills and the needs of your chosen industry for those skills. If you don’t have them, you better learn quick and never stop learning.

All viable industries innovate and improve and if you don’t get out in front of the curve you will be left behind. IMO it is also fun and self rewarding to learn so this should be viewed as something you do for yourself more so that your company.

Also, don’t overlook going off on your own. If you are the type to please your customers in a timely fashion you will do well and you only have to deal with the customers not some HR person or a boss who is only there because he has always been there. There are huge benefits to working for yourself but you better be prepared to be disciplined and work at building your business everyday. Consulting in my chosen field yielded 2 years of income much greater than I ever earned working for someone else. Only the travel which I decided was too much put an end to my business. In this economy, I would give it some serious thought. My start up costs were a computer and internet access and you seem to already have those.

Hm, do you have any advice for us "young `uns" who're basically being shit on, entry-level jobs requiring "X years of experience"?

Be willing to take an undesirable job, for low pay to get some experience that you can sell to future positions.

I went to work Yemen in the oil patch early in my career. When I begged for the chance to go with little increase in pay, the more experienced guys on my team were angry with me. They wanted everyone to hold out for higher pay. My point was, if they had to pay a lot, they wouldn't send a youngster like me.

In my opinion, I got 5 years of experience in 14 months. At least it felt like 5 years in that miserable desert.

Mr J: I rarely take time to read the long posts on FR, or anywhere else, but that was very well done, and I find little if anything to quibble about. I would only add that while the private sector was over-employing as you say, the government sector was growing just as fast or faster - and they have not been forced to face their reckoning yet - meaning the pinch on the private sector is even greater than it had to be.

Lot of wisdom in those words, not to mention pain.

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