America needs more workers at a time when more Americans — especially ex-offenders — need to work. How can the two imperatives be better synchronized?
Two Wall Street Journal writers argued in 2023 that more people can be “funneled” into the labor force, in part, by “tapping underutilized labor pools such as people with disabilities and the formerly incarcerated.” Regarding the latter, consider how people with criminal records, whose unemployment rate in recent years has ranged between 30 percent and 60 percent, might help fill that breach.
This is a good spot to state the obvious: Studies on the association between nonwork and crime have never been lacking.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and Manufacturing Institute put it this way: “We exist in an economy that competes on talent. Yet we have jobs without people and people without jobs. Business growth is hindered because we do not have the right talent needed to take on new businesses at the right time.”
The Pew Research Center released an extraordinary report in 2017 projecting that immigration would drive growth in the working population through at least 2035. For example, Pew found that the “largest segment of working-age adults — those born in the United States whose parents were also born in the country — is projected to decline from 2015 to 2035” in terms of numbers and as a share of the working-age population. Specifically, “projections show a reduction of 8.2 million of these adults, from 128.3 million in 2015 to 120.1 million in 2035.”
Offsetting that numerical loss, Pew said, will be an “increase in the number of working-age U.S. adults with immigrant parents, who are projected to number 24.6 million in 2035, up from 11.1 million in 2015.” Then the statistical kicker: “Assuming current trends continue, future immigrants and their U.S.-born children will account for 88 percent of the nation’s population growth between 2015 and 2065.” Regardless of one’s views on immigration, this is stunning.
As I write in “Second Chance Hiring,” 600,000 or more individuals leave state and federal prisons yearly. The Society for Human Resource Management has reported that 81 percent of business leaders and 85 percent of human resources leaders, believe that second-chance hires perform as well as or better than other employees. How to take advantage of so many opportunities?
Koch Industries, which hires far more ex-felons than most, does not disqualify applicants with criminal pasts. It ensures that workers are not stigmatized. And it makes its commitment public. Working with the Second Chance Business Coalition, Koch provides other businesses with “insights on recruitment, risk mitigation, partnerships, mentoring, hiring incentives, interviewing, background checks and supportive adjustments to the workplace culture.”
How wide and deep is societal support for bringing more ex-offenders on board? Wider and deeper than had been the case, but still insufficient.
CEO’s and other leaders, whatever their level of enthusiasm or trepidation, might appreciate hearing from counterparts who have pursued second-chance hiring and found it works well for their businesses. For example, JPMorgan Chase is one of more than 50 members of the Second Chance Business Coalition, which “promotes the benefits of second chance hiring.” Other mega-businesses in the coalition include AT&T, Best Buy, General Motors, Microsoft, Target, and Walmart.
JPMorgan Chase leader Jamie Dimon wrote in 2021 that “business has an important role to play in making it easier for people with criminal backgrounds to get back on their feet,” as affording a second chance will “give them dignity and allow them to provide for their families.” It also “helps companies like ours expand the number of people we hire to ensure we get the best talent.”
Three years later, Dimon was quoted in Fortune saying, “There are 70 million ex-felons in the U.S. and a lot of those folks … can’t get a car, can’t get housing. A lot of them are married, they don’t want to go back, they need help, they need skills, so what do you do?”
Nine percent of JPMorgan’s hires in a recent year had prior records. With those backgrounds, according to Fortune, having “no bearing on their roles.”
