The unfairness of life constantly amazes me. I recently came across an published in a major periodical. The article contained a shocking figure: At least 43 percent of employers use credit ratings as one part of the applicant screening process.

There is, actually, some decent reasoning behind this. In some cases, the employer may require an employee to pay business expenses out of their personal accounts and those employees later for the out-of-pocket expenses. An employee whose credit is tarnished might encounter problems on a business trip where their card gets declined. In other cases, it just might be a bad idea to hire someone who is not responsible enough to pay their bills on time. That is understandable on a theoretical level.

What I don’t understand is how employers can continue this practice in today’s terrible economic climate. There must be millions of great potential hires out there whose credit ratings have slipped due to circumstances beyond their control. The reader might be one of those people. Maybe it wasn’t your fault that you could not make your bills promptly when you didn’t have a job.