When you move to San Jose, California, you're going to need a new job to go with your new mortgage. If you've spent the last few decades mucking out a horse barn in London, Ontario, you might notice that the employment landscape has changed since the last time you went out looking for a job. The term 'equal opportunity employer' has entered the common parlance, for one thing. What does this mean for you if you're out looking for a job? This article should be able to explain it to you.

In the 1960s the United States government passed a series of acts to go along with the Civil Rights Act. In these acts, people could not be refused employment because of their race, color, religion, gender, creed, or national origin. Later additions prevented people over 40 from being discriminated against when they applied for lead-lined sheetrock installation jobs. It's also now illegal for employers to discriminate against someone because they are disabled, have a bad family/genetic history, have suffered in military service, or have a different sexual orientation.

This is good for a Chinese real estate agent in Toronto because it means she can't be barred from joining a firm because her family immigrated to North America. It doesn't mean that there won't be any discrimination in the workplace, just that you have the legal means to force it to stop if it does happen. When you're applying for a job, there are certain questions employers are not allowed to ask on the application, such as your religion, your sexual orientation, and your national origin (they can, however, ask you if you have a permit to work in this country).

It's important to remember that even though employers are not allowed to disqualify people on these factors, applicants still have to be able to do the job and meet the employer's qualifications. For instance, an African American person can't claim discrimination if he doesn't get a job that required a welder's certificate that he doesn't have. A blind person can't use equal opportunity to force a cab company to hire her as a driver. And a homosexual without a university degree still wouldn't be hired to administer cognitive behavioural therapy in Mississauga.

Technically all employers are legally required to be equal opportunity employers. However when you see the term touted in a job interview it means they are actively seeking minorities and will make special dispensations to accommodate them. For instance a language school in Canada might hire a sign language interpreter for you if you were a deaf professor, or a retail store might make sure you get the Jewish holidays off, because they want their employment roster to be as diverse as the general population.