I recently wrote several blog posts explaining that there are much fewer job advertisements in Dickinson this April, than there used to be in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.  I gave some comparisons on what jobs were advertised this April on the websites for North Dakota Job Service, Indeed.com, and Careerbuilder.com, compared to past years in Dickinson, North Dakota.

A local Dickinson reader, who works in pre-employment screening, wrote some comments to my blog posts about there being fewer job advertisements in Dickinson.  She stated that I was not completely correct about there being a work slow down in Dickinson.  She wrote that many local companies were hiring, that I might be unaware of this, because many local companies were not placing job advertisements on North Dakota Job service, Indeed.com, Careerbuilder, or Monster.com.

This made me angry, because I have seen this before in Dickinson, where local human resources personnel try to hide job announcements, in order to make these jobs only accessible to their friends and relatives that they tell about the job announcement.  I copied the reader’s comments to my blog post, and I pasted her comments to a new blog post, to bring attention to her comments.  I wanted all of the out of state workers to see this, and be aware of this.

I wrote in response to this reader’s comments, that I had seen this before in Dickinson, where Dickinson State University, the City of Dickinson, and Stark County will “hide” a job announcement.  Instead of placing the job announcement in the most widely read job posting sites such as, North Dakota Job Service, Indeed.com, Careerbuilder.com, or Monster.com, they will post the job announcement on an obscure website where no one will ever find it.

This practice that the local human resources personnel in Dickinson have, of meeting a city, county, or state agency legal requirement to publicly advertise a job announcement, by placing the job announcement someplace where no will find it, except for the people that they personally tell, is illegal.  I will explain why it is illegal.

All employers in the United States, both government agencies and private companies, are required to comply with the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, which states that employers can not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, age, color, sexual orientation, or disability.  I believe that it can be proven that the human resources personnel at Dickinson State University, the City of Dickinson, and Stark County are guilty of violating the EEO laws.

DSU, the City of Dickinson, and Stark County often post job announcements where they can not be found by normal people, conducting a normal job search.  It can be shown that the human resources personnel are deliberately and intentionally trying to hide job announcements, for job openings at publicly funded institutions and government agencies.  It can be shown that the human resources personnel are deliberately and intentionally concealing job openings so that there are very few job applicants, and not openly advertising to get a large number of applicants with relevant experience and relevant education.

One reason that the local human resources personnel are deliberately hiding job openings, so that they do not get a large number of applicants with relevant experience and relevant education, is because their intention is to hire friends and relatives who would not be the most qualified applicant if the job opening was fairly and openly advertised.  This practice is called “nepotism”, and this practice is unethical and illegal in hiring at publicly funded institutions and government agencies.  These jobs are supposed to be open to everyone.

When the human resources personnel in Dickinson hide a job announcement, and only tell certain people about the job opening, they are violating the Equal Employment Opportunity Act.  They are practicing discrimination, and this discrimination is illegal.  They are only telling people that they are “comfortable” with getting the job.  The EEO laws are meant to ensure that jobs are open to everyone, that there is no discrimination.  When a job announcement is hidden where it is unlikely to be found by a normal person conducting a normal job search, and only certain people are told about the job opening, this allows discrimination against Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Jews, homosexuals, transgenders, people from out of state, or anyone that they don’t like.

For the past six months, I have been very interested in what new job openings are posted in Dickinson, North Dakota.  Three times each week, I normally look at job listings on North Dakota Job Service, Indeed.com, and Careerbuilder.com.  For the past two months, I have also been regularly looking at other job posting websites such as Rigzone and Monster.com.  Twice each month, I do a Google Search, for specific job titles in North Dakota, which turns up jobs from other job posting websites.

I look at all the different job posting sites, so that I can see what is going on in my industry, what is going on in North Dakota, and to look for job openings for myself and for others.  There are three people in Dickinson, that I each got hired to work with me, and later got them hired to work with someone else that I know in the same industry.  There are three other people in Dickinson that I got hired to work with me part time.  Whenever I see these six people, we discuss and compare what job openings we have seen advertised for the industry that we work in.

Yesterday, I discussed with two of these people that I have gotten hired before, what job openings that I had seen advertised, and what job openings they had seen advertised for the industry that we work in.  Both of these people are lifelong Dickinson residents who are currently unemployed and looking for work.

Today, I again reviewed North Dakota Job Service, Indeed.com, Careerbuilder.com, and Monster.com for job openings.  Then, I did a Google Search, for a specific job title.  I opened every job posting website, on page one, page two, and page three of the Google Search results.  I looked at approximately six, less well known job posting websites, and reviewed all the job announcements.  The six less well known job posting websites, all had job announcements that were shown on Indeed.com and Monster.com.

On about the third page of Google Search results, on about the seventh job posting website, I saw the job listing website for LinkedIn.  On the LinkedIn job posting website, I found a 30 day old job announcement from Dickinson State University, for work that myself and my friends are looking for.  I then asked my friends who work in this same industry as me, if they had seen this job announcement at Dickinson State University, and none of them had.

The two lifelong Dickinson residents that are unemployed and looking for work, that I had a discussion with yesterday about job openings in Dickinson in our industry, they were unaware of the 30 day old job announcement at Dickinson State University.  These two people look for job openings every day on the internet, and they talk to local people they know about job openings in Dickinson.  Each of these two people attended Dickinson State University.  This job opening at DSU, was for work that each of them had been doing recently.  They couldn’t apply for this job, because they didn’t even know about it, though they are lifelong Dickinson residents, former DSU students, and they look for job openings every day on the internet.

Also on LinkedIn today, was an eleven day old job announcement from Stark County, that neither myself or any of my local Dickinson friends have ever seen before.  How can this be good, that neither myself, or my friends, who frequently look for job openings on the internet, and discuss what job openings are available, never see the job announcements that Stark County hides?

I should probably file a complaint with the North Dakota Attorney General’s office, that Dickinson State University, Stark County, and the City of Dickinson are not complying with the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, by hiding job announcements and only telling people that they know and approve of, about the job announcement.