As we have reported here before, there are far too many employers looking at credit reports and rejecting good employees outright if they have a poor credit score.
It?s the proverbial Catch-22. If you are unemployed, as more than 6.5 million Americans are right now (that is 6.5% unemployed for at least 6 months!) you probably have found it difficult to keep up with your debts and consequently your credit report has suffered.
Unfortunately, there is a prevalent myth that a poor credit report is a reflection on the individual?s work ethic and performance. This myth has been promoted by the credit reporting bureaus, who just want to sell more credit reports of course, and human resource departments who want to eliminate as many job applicants as quickly as possible.
But the truth is that there is absolutely NO CORRELATION, NONE, NADA, NEVER BEEN CONFIRMED, that a poor credit report reflects a poor worker. In fact, reason and logic tells you that the opposite is actually true, if you have poor credit and have lived through some difficult financial times aren?t you more likely to work harder, stay longer, give more to your employer? After all, it?s your livelihood that you want to reclaim!
A poor credit report is much more likely to be a sign of the times. Not everyone has escaped the recession and the ones with the perfect credit reports are not better than the rest but they just managed to avoid the hard times.
A few states are introducing legislation to limit the use of credit reports for hiring purposes. You can read about California’ Catch-22 here.
Of course there are a few jobs where a credit report may be warranted but for the vast majority of jobs using a credit report as a hiring tool is just pure discrimination against the people who are in the worst situations.
