Posted on february 27, 2006
High-tech world can
hurt job seekers
By CAROL TOWARNICKY, For the Daily News
In today's market, there still are some jobs for which you don't need to know how to use a computer. But you do need to be able to use a computer to apply for them.
In just a few years, technology has transformed not only the American workplace, but the job-application process as well. For applicants who aren't computer-literate or lack access to late-model computers, technology presents a high barrier to employment — even for jobs as janitors, as discount-store greeters, as warehouse workers or on fast-food restaurant crews.
Nearly every chain retail store and many fast-food and grocery chains — and most hospitals in the Philadelphia area — require potential workers to fill out applications online, says Joseph Douglas, a job developer at Impact Services, a nonprofit that aids ex-offenders in trying to reconnect in the community.
If you don't have computer skills — and many potential workers don't — applying for work requires the courage to undertake a frustrating wrestling match with an online application.
Even if job applicants try it, they often are faced with another: Finding a computer with sufficient memory — and a high-speed Internet connection — to fill out the large job-application files, some of which include more than 100 questions. An older computer is likely to "time out."
Other companies don't require online applications but do require job-seekers to e-mail resumes — another barrier to potential workers without e-mail accounts.
Employers and support groups have tried to lower these barriers. Some employers offer computers in their stores for job applicants to use — Wal-Mart on Roosevelt Boulevard, for example, where the application kiosk is often pretty busy, a store manager says. Support organizations help potential workers by helping them establish e-mail accounts and providing computers for applications.
But that only gets an applicant to the next high barrier: getting noticed.
"So you apply to Wal-Mart with all the millions of people from around the world who want to work there," says Douglas. "Say you're the 300th applicant in Philadelphia. What's the chance that they're going to go through 299 to hire a greeter to say, 'Welcome to Wal-Mart'?"
---
To work in America, you must show your papers — specifically, an ID card issued by the state as well as a Social Security card. Drivers use driver's licenses, but nondrivers — and many potential workers in Philadelphia fit that category — must get a so-called "nondriver's license" — a state-issued photo ID.
Getting that document requires producing several other documents, an exercise that can lead in circles for some potential workers.
To get a Pennsylvania ID, an American-born worker must present a Social Security card and usually a birth certificate with a raised seal — that is, the original or a certified copy.
If the job applicant doesn't have an original Social Security card — and many ex-offenders and young workers don't — the worker must provide other proof of identity: a government-issued ID or an employee ID card, a school ID card (not available to dropouts or high-school graduates) or a health-insurance card (also quite unlikely).
If the applicant doesn't have an original birth certificate a certified copy can be obtained from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for $10, but the request must include "a photo ID of the individual requesting the record."
Isn't this where they came in?
These may seem like small problems, but they loom large for job-seekers who don't know how to navigate a computer keyboard — or the system. *
© 2006 Philadelphia Daily News and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.philly.com