Having lived in Charlotte, NC for a number of years (my native home is Brooklyn, NY) I've experienced (along with many other Minorities who reside in the South), the ugly face of Employment Discrimination.
Time will not permit me to disclose the number of College-Educated, Intelligent Minority (mainly African-American) applicants who've had to settle for low paying Call Center jobs due to Charlotte companies using "certain Qualifications" as an excuse for not hiring them.
However these same companies would then hire less qualified White applicants.
Here are 3 strong examples of how deeply rooted Charlotte's Employment Discrimination is:
1) Upon completing Paralegal school years ago, I was repeatedly told by Charlotte Law Firms "we desire someone with at least 3 to 5 years of experience".
Yet these same Law Firms would repeatedly hire White applicants who possessed absolutely Zero Legal work experience to fill Paralegal, Legal Assistant or Legal Secretary job vacancies.
2) An North Carolina EEOC Employment Discrimination Case Mediator once shared with me that one of Charlotte's biggest banks (no it wasn't BOFA, it was Wachovia) had more Racial Discrimination complaints filed by its Minority employees than any other business located in the Southeast.
3) Three years ago Charlotte Call Centers were full of Black employees who possessed Bachelor or Master Degrees. These employees accepted such low paying jobs because despite having graduated with high GPAs, they could not find jobs that paid well nor could they afford to relocate.
Double Standard you say?
No just plain Employment Discrimination!
What about the local NAACP you ask?
Forget it!
Charlotte's so-called NAACP chapter is Extremely Divisive, Elitist, Weak and too busy chasing 100-year-old Mortgage Deed schemes to care about such important matters as Employment Discrimination.
Now on the heels of Pres. Obama and Congress rolling out a new Tax Credit bill to spur hiring, many Charlotte businesses once again are using those same old Racist "certain Qualifications" as an excuse NOT to hire Minority applicants.
Of course Charlotte's local newspaper, the Charlotte Observer (community nickname: "Charlotte Disturber") seems to be helping those companies by publishing articles like the one I included below.
Stopping Employment Discrimination especially in Southern states needs to be fought vehemently by the Obama Administration.
Due to Racist Governors and Corrupt State Officials (Southern States) Federal Enforcement of Civil Rights Laws by the U.S. Dept of Justice appears to be the only way Employment Equality and Fair Hiring will be practiced in this country.
If Pres. Obama takes up this challenge created so many years ago by the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., perhaps he will win back some of his Black Voter support for both the 2010 and 2012 elections.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Right Workers Still Hard To Find
Within a week of posting two job openings recently, The Steritech Group Inc. collected more than 200 resumes - about double the response of years past.
In November, the Charlotte food-safety and quality-assurance company hired a second recruiter to keep pace with its growth and deepening pool of applicants. And today, those recruiters say they're working harder than ever to find the right employees.
Many companies around the region are still slashing jobs and cutting pay. But those winners in this recession - companies able to grow as others have faltered - face a new challenge to find qualified job candidates among the growing stack of resumes.
"We commonly get questions about, 'How can you have a hard time finding people when there are so many people out of work?'" said Jennifer Courtney-Trice, Steritech's vice president of human resources. "In reality, it's still pretty tight when you're looking for good, quality candidates."
Government data released Friday show the Charlotte area's unemployment rate rose to 12.1 percent in December from 11.9 percent the month before. That's significantly higher than the state jobless rate, 10.9 percent, and the national average, 10 percent.
Charlotte has suffered more than other places in part because of the financial crisis in late 2008, which shook its big banks and fueled a wave of layoffs.
But some companies are hiring. International appliance maker Electrolux, outdoor equipment company Husqvarna and battery firm Celgard recently announced major expansions in the Charlotte area. A recent Charlotte Chamber report found that, despite the nearly 33,000 job losses in Mecklenburg County since the recession began, firms created more than 15,500 new jobs last year - the most since 2003.
As more jobs become available, though, and unemployment remains elevated, companies are becoming flooded with applicants. National data show there are more than six candidates for every available position across the country, and local hiring managers say they're seeing hundreds - many of whom aren't qualified for the jobs posted.
6 candidates per job
While there have always been some unqualified applicants, the sheer number of unemployed and the ease of Internet filing has made the problem worse for many companies, they say.
"When you have unemployment as high as it's been, there's a feeling that it's easy to fill jobs," said Michael Steinitz, Carolinas district president of staffing and consulting firm Robert Half International. "Actually, it's quite the opposite."
According to a recent survey from Robert Half and CareerBuilder, 44 percent of the resumes employers receive come from unqualified candidates. Almost half of the hiring managers surveyed cited under qualified applicants as their most common hiring challenge.
In addition, some of the best candidates still have jobs and are reluctant to leave in an uncertain economy, the survey found.
"It's as hard as ever," Steinitz said.
At Red Ventures, an Internet-marketing firm based in Fort Mill, S.C., recruiters have been inundated with applications for their openings, including about 40 postings in the corporate office, company co-founder Dan Feldstein said.
300 applications in a day
A job posted there one recent afternoon drew 300 applications by the end of the day, he said.
"As you can imagine, with the online world, there is very little incremental cost to a candidate to apply," Feldstein said. "There are more qualified people than ever, but there are more people than ever."
As a result, it's taking longer to find the "superstars," and Red Ventures has begun interviewing additional recruiters to help, he said.
Recruiters at Steritech, which is headquartered in south Charlotte and has 800 employees in the U.S. and Canada, face similar challenges.
The company has grown dramatically in recent years. It hired 175 people in 2009 and has already added 24 this year.
Steritech had about 60 job openings on a recent day, up from around 30 typically, said Courtney-Trice, the HR vice president.
Of the 100 or so applications she sees for each position, there are just three to five quality candidates, she said.
An electronic recruiting system, which asks candidates questions about their willingness to travel, experience and background, helps, as does the second recruiter.
But Steritech hasn't been willing to alter its multi-step hiring process, strict requirements - including a good cultural fit - and standards.
That, Courtney-Trice said, simply means "we are having to work harder."
Obama Unveils Tax Breaks To Spur Jobs Growth, Hike Wages
In an effort to spur job creation, President Obama unveiled Friday a $33 billion package of tax breaks aimed at encouraging businesses to hire workers and give employees raises.
The proposal would provide a $5,000 tax credit for each worker hired in 2010 and subsidize wage increases by reimbursing Social Security tax increases for businesses that expand their payrolls.
The tax breaks would be capped at $500,000 a business, meaning that they would mostly benefit small firms, according to senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the plan. The tax break on pay increases would apply only to workers making $106,800 or less.
Obama made the announcement during a visit to the Chesapeake Machine Co., a Baltimore firm that makes custom industrial equipment.
With the nation’s unemployment rate at the highest level in a generation even as the economy begins to recover from a deep recession, the tax breaks are intended to give an added incentive for businesses to hire workers, Obama said.
The proposal is also intended to give a political boost to Obama, who has been under pressure to do more to create jobs. Administration officials have said for months that the president’s plans to revamp health care, foster development of clean energy and boost education funding are aimed at the nation’s long-term economic growth.
But with unemployment and flat wages lingering as problems even as the larger economy begins to heal, the president and his allies in Congress have been searching for ways to accelerate job creation and wage growth.
“Now’s the perfect time for this kind of incentive because the economy is growing but businesses are still hesitant to start hiring again,” Obama said.
The president’s plan is similar to several proposals circulating on Capitol Hill and is estimated to benefit more than 1 million businesses. The administration did not offer an estimate of the number of jobs the tax breaks would create.
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Sources: Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, MSNBC, WSJ, Roland Martin.com, Youtube, Google Maps
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