’ I’ve also been told point-blank to my face, ‘We don’t hire the unemployed.’

[FreeJoe]

35. It is a catch-22

I work in a professional/corporate environment. I know nothing about hiring practices in retail, manufacturing, farm-work, etc. In my environment, a typical manager gets to hire about 1 person a year on average. If they hire badly, they'll be stuck with that bad employee for a long time. For that reason, everyone I know is extremely risk averse in hiring. They always want to go for the safe hire.

Hiring "safe" leads to lots of societal dysfunction. It means that people with connections get hired over people without connections because they are "known" quantities. If you come with a good recommendation from someone I know and trust, I'm much more likely to take a chance on you than a stranger. The modern corporate code essentially forbids formal references, so if I don't know someone that knows you, I'm not likely to get any professional reference on you.

As described in the OP, it leads to discrimination against the unemployed. People don't want to take the risk of hiring someone that isn't currently working because there may be a reason why they aren't. There usually isn't a good reason, but no one wants to take that risk. The more desperate you are for a job, the less people want to hire you. It's kind of like the high school dating scene all over again.

I'm not sure how you solve the problem.