In a July 2013 report titled, Wanted: Accurate FBI Background Checks for Employment, Reward: Good Jobs, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) cautions that the “rapidly increasing” use of FBI background checks for employment and licensing purposes is problematic because information gathered during these checks is often incomplete, outdated, and/or incorrect. Moreover, NELP states, based on its research, “African Americans are especially disadvantaged by the faulty records because people of color are consistently arrested at rates greater than their representation in the general population, and large numbers of those arrests never lead to conviction.” Until reliability of FBI records improves, NELP reminds potential employers and government agencies that, by law, job seekers must be given notice and an opportunity to respond to any adverse information from a criminal background check where that information would result in an adverse employment action (i.e. termination, non-selection, non-promotion, and the like). For a complete discussion of NELP’s findings and recommendations, go to www.nelp.org/site/issues.
