American Staffing Association (04/13/12) Anne Duffy

The city of Washington, DC, and the state of Oregon recently
enacted laws that prohibit employers and employment agencies from
discriminating against job applicants based on their status as
unemployed. New Jersey had previously enacted such a law, and
similar legislation is pending in Arizona, Illinois, Nebraska,
New York, and Michigan.

The DC Unemployed Discrimination Act of 2012, set to take effect
next week, will prohibit employers and employment agencies from
discriminating against job applicants based on their status as
unemployed and will be the first law to ban the consideration of
an applicant’s unemployment status in adverse hiring
decisions.

The Oregon law took effect March 27. It prohibits employers and
employment agencies from publishing job advertisements that
include language indicating that unemployed individuals should
not apply for the job or that they will not be considered for the
position.