The economy is starting to look like it’s in better shape these days. Although the unemployment rate is still hovering around 10 percent, almost 300,000 jobs were added in April.
As a recent grad looking to enter the job market, this news looked promising to me. That is, until I read this story about employers running credit checks on potential employees.
According to a 2009 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, approximately 60 percent of employers admitted to conducting credit checks on job applicants.
This news was pretty shocking to me, to say the least. I had already been warned about employers searching for me on Facebook, or at least conducting a background check. That type of research seemed reasonable to me. But a credit check? I’m not quite sure how I feel about this new trend.
This news is especially daunting for those that have struggled in the past few years. What if you were laid off in the last year, and have racked up credit card debt trying to support yourself or your family? Does this constitute a potential block from a new job?
What the survey can’t explain is how much employers weigh the credit checks against applicants. Some may take a bad credit score more seriously than others, but there’s no real way to determine that.
So what’s the moral of the story? It’s always important to maintain a good credit score, and this new trend just adds an extra incentive. If you don’t know what your credit score is, check annualcreditreport.com for a free report and go from there. And if you haven’t already, check out our post about the best credit cards for building or rebuilding your score.
What do you think about this story? Tell us in the comments section!
