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Newest Job Qualification — A Good Credit History

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the this-can-only-end-badly dept.

Alien54 writes quotes an article from The Day that says "In the past, only banks and financial service companies routinely ran credit checks on potential employees. But employers in other sectors increasingly are including [credit checks] in the screening process to assess applicants' honesty and integrity, traits not readily gleaned from a résumé. US employers' use of credit checks increased 55 percent over the last five years, according to Spherion, a recruitment and staffing firm with offices around the country.... "The credit check has become a general measure of responsibility and organization," said industrial psychologist Carl Greenberg, senior vice president of Spherion. "If you cannot organize your finances, how are you going to responsibly organize yourself for a company? Organization is a measure of responsibility."

2 of 1,064 comments (clear)

  1. Police Officer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My buddy wanted to be a cop, long story short his credit was bad because of his friend, and when the did a credit check they told him he cant have the job.

    Turns out you're most likely to accept a bribe with bad history.

  2. Re:Little Suzy. by letxa2000 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Screw that. I can understand why they might want to look at a credit report to determine how responsible an applicant is, but I wouldn't do it as an applicant. Maybe if the credit bureaus start dishing out a "responsibility score" that just gives them a number based, basically, on absence of negative information without giving them the information.


    Except in special cases, my financial information is no business of my employer. I would never give my credit report to a prospective employer, period, unless they're going to give me a loan or something. If they have a problem with that, they can keep on looking for another candidate. And your example is also interesting... so the person wanted a part-time job and they initially didn't want to give it to her because it wouldn't be enough to pay her debts? If enough employers implement systems like that, it will make sure that someone that is in debt will be in debt forever.

    Nope... candidates for jobs just need to say "no" to this trend. I've never been faced with it myself, but if I ever am then I'll just keep looking for some other employer.