Local hiring is a strategy used to employ people from the local community, often in publicly funded construction projects, to reduce unemployment and benefit the environment. However, it can limit the candidate pool and harm nearby areas.
Local hiring is a hiring strategy used to ensure that publicly funded jobs go to people in the local community. From an environmental perspective, this is a much greener way of running a business, as local workers can walk, cycle or take public transport to get to their workplace. Politicians usually like this hiring strategy, because it works to reduce unemployment in the area of voting, which makes the politician look good. Some prospective employees and employers do not like this method of hiring, because it reduces the candidate pool making candidates just outside the local area ineligible to apply for the job.
Companies that add local hiring to their standard hiring policies will decide that anyone in a city or, perhaps, anyone within a certain business radius is considered local for hiring purposes. The company will therefore only accept candidates within this area and will refuse to hire people beyond this distance. Companies that participate in this form of hiring are often publicly funded – and often in the construction industry, as many publicly funded construction projects may stipulate local hires as a requirement for financing.
One benefit of local hiring is that it’s usually better for the environment. That’s because employees who live close to work are more likely to bike, walk, or use public transportation to get there. This isn’t always true, because the area might be difficult to travel without a car, and some employees just prefer to commute to work.
Politicians like the idea of local hiring because they can decrease the amount of unemployment in the politician’s constituencies. A politician in a particular district may boast that unemployment has gone down because more people have been hired as a result of publicly funded projects that he has supported. While this helps the local area, it can harm nearby areas.
The concept of local hiring is seen as a nuisance by employees. Applicants who live in areas too far apart to be considered local may not be able to apply, even if they live a short distance beyond the designated radius. Even if a candidate is better qualified than the other workers, it doesn’t matter, because he is not in the local area.
Many employers dislike local hiring for the same reasons. A local hiring policy limits an employer’s hiring pool. There may be more qualified candidates willing to travel but as the employer is limited assuming area restrictions he will not be able to hire them.
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