Labor issues rules for contractors on collecting job applicant data

New regulations clarify how government classifies job applicants who apply for jobs over the Internet.

The Labor Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Friday issued new rules to clarify how the government classifies job applicants who apply for jobs using the Internet.

The final rule, published in Friday's Federal Register, applies to federal contractors who are subject to the recordkeeping provisions of the laws enforced by OFCCP. The Labor Department uses the rule to enforce its rules against employment discrimination of any kind at companies that are given government contract work.

The lack of clarity in the rules on Internet job applicants made it difficult for the Labor Department to discern whether government contractors unfairly discriminated when they hired new employees.

The new rule defines "Internet applicants" and requires contractors to retain all expressions of interest in advertised jobs by people considered, and specifies records to be maintained about searches of internal and external databases, among other information.