Help Wanted: A Survey of Employer Concerns About Hiring Ex-Convicts

Abstract

The majority (53%) of 62 Baltimore area employers surveyed were willing to hire an ex-offender described in a hypothetical scenario. Employers’greatest apprehensions concerned ex-offenders’ people skills and their customers’ discomfort if customers knew that an ex-convict worked for them. Also, the data show that employers’willingness to take advantage of a program with subsidized wages and their fear of being victimized were related to their degree of social contact with ex-convicts. These findings suggest that ex-offenders would benefit from programs enhancing people skills and that employerswith greater familiarity with ex-convicts can more easily dismiss negative stereotypes about this population.