Under federal employment laws, employers may not discriminate against prospective or current employees based on race, gender, age, or disability. Currently, there is no federal law that forbids employment discrimination based on current employment status. However, several members of United States Congress are looking to change that.

In a recent report, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) identified 73 businesses that stated in job postings that applicants should be currently employed. "This perverse catch-22 is deepening our unemployment crisis by arbitrarily foreclosing job opportunities to many who are otherwise qualified for them," said the NELP, a group that advocates for employees.

After receiving the report, the Huffington Post contacted many of the 73 businesses that included current employment as a requirement in their job postings. Many of the companies stated that the job postings had been written by outside contractors, and that they did not, in fact, discriminate against the unemployed when making hiring decisions.

Interestingly, many staffing agencies questioned by the Huffington Post stated that they do try only to recruit currently employed workers. "When my clients hire me, they want people who are motivated to go to work for the right reasons," said a representative of Martin Recruiting Partners. She expanded that common reasons that employees move to a new company are for better benefits or more opportunities for advancement, and unemployed people are often simply seeking a job out of necessity, which may not serve the employer as well.

Last month, several members of Congress introduced the Fair Employment Opportunity Act of 2011, which would prohibit employers and staffing agencies from discriminating against applicants based on employment status. It remains to be seen whether the bill will become law.

Source: The Huffington Post, "Unemployment Discrimination: Who's Afraid To Hire The Jobless?" Tyler Kingkade, Jordan Howard and Arthur Delaney, August 11, 2011