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With unemployment among blacks at more than 15 percent, and in light of new unemployment data released for October 2009, the NAACP joined with several other groups this week to call on President Obama to do more to create jobs.

The organizations, including the Leadership Council on Civil Rights, the AFL-CIO, the Center for Community Change, the National Council of La Raza, and the Economic Policy Institute, stated that they believe the president’s $787 billion stimulus program has not gone far enough to fight unemployment. In response to the crisis, the groups held a panel discussion this week to raise awareness and suggest potential solutions for policymakers. They also issued a joint statement advocating for strong congressional action to address the crisis, starting with extending unemployment benefits, food stamps, and COBRA to meet the needs of the significant number of unemployed people facing a long road to recovery.

“It’s time for us to really stoke this issue up,” said Hilary O. Shelton; NAACP Senior VP for Advocacy and Policy. “We’re not so much trying to convince him to do something he doesn’t want to do, but urging him to move forward on an issue we have agreement on.”

Currently, nearly 16 million Americans are unable to find employment and another nine million are only able to find part-time employment, according to the EPI. And finding jobs is increasingly difficult – there are over six job seekers for each available job opening. The situation is even more difficult for workers of color. The unemployment rate for blacks has jumped to 15.7 percent, from 8.9 percent when the recession started 23 months ago. That compares with 13.1 percent for Hispanics and 9.5 percent for whites. The black unemployment rate has climbed above 20 percent in several states, reaching 23.9 percent in Michigan and 20.4 percent in South Carolina.

“Make no mistake – this is the civil rights issue of the moment,” said LCCR President and CEO Wade Henderson. “Unless we resolve our national job crisis, all of our other priorities – from reforming health care and fixing our broken immigration system, to stemming home foreclosures and expanding economic opportunity for all Americans – are in real jeopardy.”

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At the Centennial Convention of the NAACP, the delegates unanimously passed a resolution opposing the use of Credit Reports in Employment and calling for all NAACP units to partner with like-minded organizations to bring an end to this practice.

Resolution: Use of Credit History in Employment
Therefore be it resolved, that the NAACP stands opposed to the use of credit reports in hiring as a form of economic discrimination, and will partner with allied organizations to conduct educational forums as well as working through the local, State, and Federal legislative process to make sure that such practices are prohibited.

House Bill 3149; the Equal Employment for All Act (HR3149) would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to generally prohibit the use of consumer credit checks in employment/hiring decisions.

Under the bill, employers would be prohibited from using information in a consumer report or investigative consumer report pertaining to an employee or applicant’s creditworthiness, credit standing, or credit capacity when making hiring determinations or taking adverse employment actions as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Notably, this prohibition would apply even if the employee or applicant consents to such use. The bill would establish exceptions when: (1) the employee or applicant applies for, or currently holds, employment that requires national security or FDIC clearance; (2) the employee or applicant applies for, or currently holds, employment with a state or local government agency that otherwise requires use of a consumer report; (3) the employee or applicant applies for, or currently holds, a supervisory, managerial, professional, or executive position at a financial institution; or (4) otherwise required by law.

The law is necessary because disaggregated credit data shows graduated disparities in credit scoring between racial and socio-economic groups. The use of credit checks for the purposes of making employment decisions would have a disparate impact on minorities and those from lower socio-economic classes, who are statistically likely to have lower credit scores than their more affluent counterparts. Furthermore, there is no reliable data that indicates that Credit History is any indicator of future job performance.

“There is no social science to support the assumption that credit histories reliably predict success on the job…this law would help to stop the vicious cycle of those who seek new job opportunities to pay their creditors but cannot obtain work because they lost a job and have been unable to pay their creditors,” said Audrey Wiggins, director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Employment Discrimination.

The Bill is currently in the House Committee on Financial Services.

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