Stigma of criminal record fades in hiring
As job market tightens, employers look at prospects with blemished résumés
Shea Rochester, who once spent a month in jail on an assault charge that was later dropped, is now wanted in a different way.
After a few months of job hunting, the 32-year-old recently got two offers in the same week. He accepted a $14.48-an-hour position at a Georgia factory that makes shortening and cooking oil.
As U.S. unemployment falls to the lowest level in a decade, driving it beneath what Federal Reserve officials consider is the lowest sustainable rate, people with blemishes on their résumés are getting second looks by employers trying to fill vacancies that currently stand at a near-record 5.7 million.
The stigma of criminal records, as well as erosion of job skills during incarceration, reduced employment of ex-offenders by as many as 1.9 million in 2014, the Center for Economic and Policy Research estimates. While the government doesn’t track jobs for those with arrest records, people are increasingly getting hired, according to economists, companies and government officials.
“As the job market tightens, employers are being forced to look at the worst hiring prospects who may have seriously flawed applications,” said Gary Burtless, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington and a former Labor Department economist.
Homebuilders are recruiting inmates who’ve taken carpentry and plumbing classes at a mediumsecurity prison in Sheridan, Ill., and are in talks to set up additional programs at facilities in Nevada, Wisconsin, California and Florida. The measures make sense for an industry trying to find an additional 200,000 construction workers.
“We have a huge labor shortage,” said Gerald Howard, chief executive officer of the National Association of Home Builders. “This has become a focus out of necessity.”
U.S. unemployment fell to 4.3 percent in May, below the 4.7 percent rate that Fed officials view as full employment.
The Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, representing 1,300 business groups, agreed
this spring with the Council of State Governments Justice Center to provide assistance to chamber members in the hiring of ex-offenders.
While some businesses have been interested in the past, “it becomes even more critical when the labor market is tight not to rule out qualified applicants,” said David Rat tray, a Los Angeles chamber executive.
Stigma associated with criminal-justice issues has been a sticking point for millions of Americans during the nearly eight-year expansion. The Center for Economic and Policy Research estimated there are between 14 million and 15.8 million working-age people with felony convictions. An estimated 70 million have some sort of arrest or conviction record, according to the National Employment Law Project.
The interest in exoffenders has occurred at a time that the labor market is showing vast improvement for disadvantaged groups who have had historically high rates of unemployment, including minorities, those with little education and those out of work for extended periods.
The data may “indicate some lessening of stigma and more hiring of the formerly incarcerated,” said Alan Barber, director of domestic policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.
High school dropouts are the group that has seen the most improvement in hiring recently.
Not everyone qualifies for jobs. All workers hired are tested for drugs before starting at Butterball Farms, a Grand Rapids, Mich., butter producer.
Butterball has brought on 23 ex-offenders this year
out of 51 hires for entrylevel jobs, about double the number from the same time in 2014, said Bonnie Mroczek, chief talent officer.
“If you just looked at the worst thing about any applicant, you would never hire anyone,” she said, adding the company has a long track record of hiring “returning citizens” who typically have greater loyalty to the company.
Rochester, the factory worker, says the stigma of a 10-year-old arrest made his job search more challenging this year.
He started his hunt after completing a college degree in December after military service.
He landed a position at Stratas Foods after attending a job fair for exoffenders in Valdosta, Ga., where 40 employers took applications.
While happy to have a job, Rochester said he understands many employers see those with any record as “the last place” to hire from.
“I feel like it is always a burden,” he said.