JOBLESS FOR A YEAR? THAT MAY BE LESS OF A PROBLEM
Unique circumstances of pandemic have shifted perspective for some hiring managers
“Employers don’t often articulate why, but the idea, they believe, is that people who are out of work are damaged in some way, which is why they are out of work.” Peter Cappelli • Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
Jamie Baxter used to be skeptical of job applicants who had not worked for long stretches of time, assuming that other employers had passed them over.
“My mind would jump to the negative stigma of ‘Wow, why could this person not get a
job for this long?’” said Baxter, who is CEO of Qwick, a temporary staffing company for the hospitality industry.
Yet recently, he has hired at least half a dozen people who had been out of work for several months or longer. The pandemic, he said, “made me open my eyes.”
Baxter’s change of heart reflects an apparent willingness among employers in the pandemic era to hire applicants who have been jobless for long periods.
That is a break from the last recession, when long-term unemployment became selfperpetuating for millions of Americans. People who had gone without a job for months or years found it very difficult to find a new one, in part because employers avoided them.
The importance of what are often referred to as “resume gaps” is fading, experts say, because of labor shortages and more bosses seeming to realize that long absences from the job market should not taint candidates.
This is good news for the 2.2 million people who have been out of work for more than six months, and are considered long-term unemployed, according to the Labor Department, double the number before the pandemic.
But that change may not last if more people decide to return to the job market or if the economy cools because of another wave of coronavirus cases, experts say.
Baxter, whose company is based in Phoenix, said he has learned from his own experience. Forced to lay off roughly 70 percent of his 54 employees when the pandemic hit, he realized he was responsible for creating the very employment gaps he had once used to screen out job applicants.
“I knew I was creating employment gaps,” he said. “Maybe other people would have employment gaps for very justifiable reasons. It doesn’t mean that they are not a good employee.”
Even in normal times, the long-term unemployed face steep odds. The longer applicants are out of work, the more they may become discouraged and the less time they may spend searching for jobs.
Their skills may deteriorate or their professional networks may erode.
Some employers regard applicants with long periods of unemployment unfavorably, research shows — even if many are reluctant to admit it.
“Employers don’t often articulate why, but the idea, they believe, is that people who are out of work are damaged in some way, which is why they are out of work,” said Peter Cappelli, director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Some economists believe the pandemic’s unique effects on the economy may have changed things.
Notably, the pandemic destroyed millions of jobs seemingly all at once, especially in the travel, leisure and hospitality industries. Many people could not, or chose not to, work because of health concerns or family responsibilities.
“For people who were just laid off because of COVID, will there be a stigma? I don’t really think so,” Cappelli said.
Although monthly job-finding rates plummeted for both the short- and long-term unem
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