NCJ Number
88968
Date Published
1979
Length
47 pages
Annotation
Of the 36 to 40 million people in the United States with criminal arrest records, between 26 and 29 million are in the labor force.
Abstract
An additional 3.5 million persons with arrest records who are not currently in the labor force will reenter the labor force in the future. Groups with a disproportionately high number of offenders are the disadvantaged, blacks, veterans, and persons with problems related to alcohol or drug abuse. The Department of Labor cannot expect to effectively accomplish its mission to reduce unemployment unless it takes account of the problems raised by criminal records in employer decisionmaking. Criminal records are widely used to screen job applicants. Problems resulting from criminal justice contact and criminal record employment barriers may result in 5 to 10 percent of all unemployment. The Department of Labor currently lacks efforts to deal with this problem, although several of its offices have the capability of addressing it. The Department needs to develop an educational and technical assistance capability to help employers identify and remove artificial barriers to employment, as required by a new provision of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). Footnotes and data tables are included.