US – An increasing number of people have been to prison or who have been convicted of a felony

This surprisingly large group might have difficulty finding work even in a good job market, making it harder for the Fed to stimulate the economy back to full strength.

As a result of policies intended to curb violent crime and drug use, more and more people have been arrested, convicted of a felony, or sent to prison in recent decades, especially among black men and men without little education.

Roughly 3 percent of U.S. adults had a felony conviction in 1980, according to unpublished calculations by Sarah Shannon of the University of Georgia, Christopher Uggen of the University of Minnesota and several of their colleagues. Since then, the figure has nearly tripled to 8.4 percent, less than half of whom have been to prison.

That figure represents an increase of about two percentage points from 6.5 percent in 2000. By comparison, the number of adults in the workforce — either employed or looking for work — has only fallen by about four percentage points over the same period, from 67 percent to 63 percent. That decline reflects both the aging of the population and the financial crisis.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Mass incarceration is making the Federal Reserve’s job harder – The Washington Post.

Related posts

Job Search / Criminal record may cut your chances of getting hired by half

It’s hard enough finding a job these days without having to explain a criminal record. According to a hiring discrimination study conducted by Princeton professor Devah Pager, having a criminal record may cut your chances of getting hired by half. When researchers sent 25 young men with similar levels of job experience and education to … Continue reading →

US / BMW / Federal lawsuit charges for criminal background check policy disproportionately excluding blacks

BMW Manufacturing Co.’s criminal background check policy disproportionately excluded blacks from working at the company’s facility in Spartanburg, a federal lawsuit charges. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges in the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Spartanburg, that BMW’s policy has had a disparate impact on black employees and applicants, depriving them of … Continue reading →

Equal Employment Opportunity | New rules on job seekers with criminal records

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted Wednesday to revise its long-standing guidance to employers on how to properly evaluate job applicants’ criminal histories in pre-employment screening. The issue became a controversy because an estimated 65 million Americans have some type of criminal record, which can make it very difficult to get a job. Researchers …Continue reading →

US / More prisoners than high school teachers

If sitting in a prison cell was a job, it would be one of the most common jobs in the United States. In 2012, there were some 1,570,000 inmates in state and federal prisons in the U.S., according to data from the Justice Department. By contrast, there were about 1,530,000 engineers in America last year, … Continue reading →