Help wanted: the employed.

• Author: Mejeur, Jeanne
• Position: TRENDS & TRANSITIONS

More than 14 million workers are unemployed, and it's taking them longer to find a job. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 11 percent of workers require " more than a year to land a new position.

Employers find themselves inundated with r6sumds for every opening. To quickly pare down the number of job seekers, some employers are posting advertisements limiting applicants to those who are currently or recently employed. Is this legal?

Although federal law prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color. religion, national origin or gender, employment status is not mentioned.

New Jersey became the first state to pass a law banning discrimination against the unemployed. Representative Celeste Riley, a sponsor of the bill, says she became aware of the problem when a colleague showed her an online ad prohibiting unemployed candidates from applying.

The bill was "simply the right thing to do for thousands of New Jerseyans who, through no fault of their own, found themselves without a job in recent years," Riley said in a press release.

"Judging a person by whether they have a job is not the way to fill job vacancies. I want to see everyone judged on their skills and ability to do the job."

New Jersey's law, passed in March, prohibits advertising job vacancies that include current employment as a job qualification, or indicate applications will be accepted only from currently employed people or that applications from the unemployed will not be...