As unemployment rates rise in our country the hunt for a job is remarkably competitive and the demand is more than the supply. Students that are graduating from college and new to the workplace along with laid off workers are competing in the same marketplace for employment opportunities that aren’t materializing. If you are fortunate enough to locate a job you need to market yourself effectively in your interview to have a chance of getting the position.

Interviews involve responding correctly to a variety of questions that are an enormous amount of checking prospects background information before a job is even offered. For many applicants they believe a background check is reviewing a prospects criminal history. Then again, background checks or verifications often will also include reviews of your credit history or scores. If you happen to have a credit score that is less than perfect or extremely low you could find yourself out of the running for a position or place of employment with a company no matter how great of an asset you would be.

Numerous employers don’t take the additional step of credit checks when reviewing background information. Though, many employers do review the financial history of an applicant. Many people understand your car insurance rates are greatly affected by your credit score along with obtaining a credit card or a mortgage. However, a number of people are ignorant to the fact a bad credit score may cost you a job.

The history of employment background checks

As few as ten years ago, inquiries for a job applicant’s credit weren’t of great concern for a company hiring employees. Only about a fourth of employers bothered with checking an applicant’s credit history information. In a lot of cases it was merely to confirm any questions concerning any identification issues that may have occurred. Recent studies have revealed that as recently as a couple of years ago this changed to a little less than half of all employers are using credit checks as a routine part of the hiring process. Of the companies that are using credit checks as part of your resume, they admitted these are to eliminate less than desirable applicants from the field of available hopefuls.

Why would a company run a credit check?

When companies at the outset began running credit checks for their employees it was to discover how responsible an employee was. Companies felt that a credit history could reveal a person’s personal responsibility on the job. An individual that had a great deal of debt would be extremely likely to default on deadlines, miss workdays and be overall less responsible than a company employee with a better credit score. Companies even assumed the overall stress of bills that were due and growing would decrease productivity in a worker believing that any excessive amount of outstanding debt would distract from a job performance.

How a bad credit score affects jobs in the financial sector of the workplace

The financial sector of the workplace market is utilizing background credit checks for more employees than any other type of employment. These are jobs that will eliminate you if you have less than perfect credit or a bad credit score; nearly any job in the banking industry where money is handled, accountants and particular government jobs.

These particular jobs are where employees are handling money and the assumption is that the temptation is too great that employees cannot resist illegal activity because of their bad credit score and large amounts of debt.

Some jobs will automatically eliminate you for employment based on a credit score below a certain number.

Jobs that you cannot be offered because of bad credit scores

These are jobs you cannot be offered with a bad credit score;

• Federal transportation authority (if you have unsecured debt of at least $5000)
• Jewelry manufacturing jobs

FTA or Federal Transportation Authority positions are not offered to any applicants that have at least $5000 in unsecured debt as demonstrated by their credit history check. The federal government has a policy in place that people which meet these criteria are in a very powerful position that would make the chances of a bribe being offered and accepted more than likely to occur than someone with a better credit history background.

Jewelry manufacturing jobs are not permitted with a bad credit history or less than perfect credit because you will be working with valuable jewels which are easy to conceal and steal. Employees that have financial issues of their own are more likely than not to steal.

What does the future hold?

Congress made an assessment of regulations surrounding companies doing credit checks for employees and potential employees in 2010. Nearly 30 members of Congress are in support of a change in current legislation to stop companies that are using credit checks for would be employment opportunities. The legislation is still in the status of a bill and hasn’t been passed into federal law. However, it would stop any type of discrimination by employers based on what information is found in a credit history or report. This would be a great help at the federal level of administration.

At the state level, there are two states that have enacted their own legislation to prevent and stop discrimination against employees based on credit history information. The two states that have stepped forward in the battle are Hawaii and Washington. Companies do have some exceptions and the federal laws surrounding this behavior will more than likely also.

The financial world may not open up for those with less than perfect credit or poor credit scores and will more than likely be included in exceptions at both state and federal levels of regulation.

Any prospective employee that has applied to a company that has credit checks as part of a background screening process should clean up your credit score and history before application. If you had a couple of years to take care of any blemishes or bad credit history you could probably make this happen. However, the reality of the situation is you may not have time to do that. In order to do something right away about a bad credit score, make certain you pay your current bills on time and for the long term work on making your credit score better. These actions will at least that your current credit activity or score is better than what your score shows historically and may assist you with getting around those credit restrictions that companies have in place when doing background checks.