Why does a prospective employer need my address?

This happens a lot: I apply for a job and they ask for my complete address. Why? I would understand if they just want to know what city/town I’m in: That has bearing on how easily I can get to the office.

But why do they need to know my street address?

The only thing I can think: Indeed/LinkedIn/take-your-pick is building a profile of me based on this info, using my street as a proxy for my income, credit score, or, ultimately, for my social class.

From now on, when they ask me, I’m just going to put a rich person’s address. For this one I used a Brooklyn townhouse where Maggie Gyllenhaal and one of the Saarsgaards lives.

WoahWoah, (edited )

So they can mail you things? I understand that most things can and are done digitally, it’s still very common to mail things to prospective employees. Contracts hiring them, for instance.

Or, in your case, if they’re a classy employer, a letter denying your application.

Wwwbdd,

I put up a job posting for my construction company last year and I had applicants from all over the world. Probably 60% from my city, 20% from my province but nowhere near me, and 20% from other countries.

I wouldn’t want or expect anyone to move for this job, let alone from the other side of the world. I manually rejected people who were too far away, but I can definitely understand wanting to filter out people based on their home address

PriorityMotif,
@PriorityMotif@lemmy.world avatar

People night be moving there with their spouse. That kept happening to my brother because he hadn’t moved into the city where his wife had gotten a job. He had to wait until they moved to actually get a job.

Pyr_Pressure,

I can see that being annoying, but it’s also one of the things that makes you a better/worse candidate for certain jobs.

Moving from out of country might mean you’re unfamiliar with the rules/regulations for certain things (like building codes/OSHA type stuff) or if it involves lots of travel people want to hire those familiar with the city streets and traffic already.

plz1,

It could be innocuous, but the paranoid brain I have leads me to believe it’s so they can attampt a background check based on where you live.

“maybe we don’t want to hire someone from that neighborhood”

afraid_of_zombies,

Could easily be both. I kinda feel like I ran into this once with a resume I saw that the person lived way too far away don’t remember exactly.

TexMexBazooka,

To send you tax information, mostly. This is a stupid thing to be mad about.

thesmokingman,

I feel like you missed that this is on a job application, not an offer letter. Unless I’m actually hired and get paid by you, you aren’t going to send me tax documents so you don’t need my address.

elrik,

They may be checking to see which candidates live in a “hub zone” for certain credits through the SBA if you’re in the US.

lud, (edited )

Isn’t your (and everyone else’s) address public information anyways in your country?

Here you can search for whoever and find their full name, address, and a bunch for information. If you pay a small sum to a company (or call the tax agency yourself for free, but that’s annoying) you can also find out how much money someone is earning.

Almost every phone number is also available and searchable online.

All this information is also available if you for example know the car plate number of someone’s car.

MetaCubed,

Where on earth do you live?

thesmokingman,

In the US this is a web search or two away. I’d assume a majority of other places have similar setups from phone companies, public records, and data brokers.

lud, (edited )

In the Nordics.

Edit: why did someone downvote me, lol?

Do they think I am lying or what‽

tiredofsametab,

I mean, phone books were a thing in the US until very recently and one had to pay to not be listed (at least where I lived)

boatsnhos931,

I always put their address. I LIVE AT WORK HOMIE.

Adulated_Aspersion,

Answer: taxes, actually. If you become an employee, your actual address is needed to ensure taxes are taken appropriately. This is true especially in work from home situations.

Nastybutler, (edited )

That “if” at the beginning of your second sentence is doing a lot of heavy lifting. OPs whole point is why they need this before they hire them. Of course they’ll need it after they’re hired, no one is questioning that, so your comment is irrelevant

CaptainProton,

But also because it’s illegal to ask how much you’re making now. Not not illegal to pull your place up on Zillow.

Kolanaki, (edited )
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

To mail you shit…? Out of all the things an employer can ask, your address is one of the least shady. 🤨

Potatos_are_not_friends,

Some ask for your social security number, and j always nope right out.

I’ll give it to you after I sign the contact.

Kolanaki, (edited )
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

I would assume they want the SS# to verify employment history, however IME nobody has ever actually checked my past history or at least didn’t call me out on my lies.

d00phy,

Work history is what references are for. They do not need your SSN until they start withholding SS benefits for you. I think I used to include my address on ye olde papier résumés I would send out, so not sure how much I’d want to die on that particular hill.

DaCrazyJamez,

I recently started a part time job, less than 15 hrs /wk, $15/hr. I had to get a background check, drug test, and they called my university to verify my degree (which i only know about because I have a friend who works in the office there.)

thatsux0rz,

The onboarding process for my business you complete the E-Verify I-9 form, then come in with Passport/SS/ID card and verify then. Asking for SS numbers or address through a form like this is unnecessary and not safe.

afraid_of_zombies,

One company I worked for really sat down and did it I know because one of my ex-employers had folded and they called me about how they couldn’t reach them.

tkohldesac,
@tkohldesac@lemmy.world avatar

If I was employed by the employer, 100% they’ll get the address. This is for an APPLICATION. That you don’t even know for sure is the actual company. I hope people aren’t just giving their address out to any faceless “person” on the Internet that asks.

SendMePhotos,

Address is verified during the I-9 process during onboarding.

AngryCommieKender, (edited )

It’s so they can weed out potential applicants that are experiencing homelessness.

Same reason that so many jobs use algorithms to screen out applicants. They don’t want to hire anyone outside of their current networks. Nepotism is totally legal, just look at Jared Kushner

PatFussy,

The easiest and most likely reason is that HR is lazy so when they need to update info on their side on hired they don’t want to reach out. They can just have everything in one shot. I doubt it’s anything objectifying or anything to raise eyebrows over.

Nastybutler,

I think this is the most likely reason

tkohldesac,
@tkohldesac@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve been looking for a job for 3 months and in that time came across at least 4 postings pretending to be a company for social engineering purposes. There are nefarious actors out there collecting information. My advice is to use a job board to find out who’s hiring and then apply through THEIR website, not the job board. I’ve talked to 3 different HR departments saying that they’re aware someone is posing as them on LinkedIn and no, they’re not hiring.

PatFussy,

This is also a super likely case. The only time I have ever been scammed and had my identity stolen was because of trickery like this. I wish the worst for these assholes posing as companies

mrfriki,

When I was looking for jobs I realized that many employees asked this data to assess the distance from your home to the workplace and try to determine if you will be “happy “ on the long term or if you will quit for a job that was closer to your home. It was local jobs anyway.

IamAnonymous,

This is what I think it’s for as well because the recruiters always ask this question.

xmunk,

Racism. They never have to ask if you’re black but if you live in a predominantly black neighborhood they can decline to hire you without running afoul of anti-discrimination laws.

You’d be surprised how many things in America are just racism wearing a wig.

Nastybutler,

That can be determined by Zip Code alone. Exact address isn’t needed to determine which neighborhood an applicant is from in most major cities

Mirshe,

True, but asking for your ZIP code feels more nebulous and undefined as to WHY. Asking for your full address is “oh, I guess so they can mail me things if they need to” for most applicants, so it gets looked past a lot easier. One of the few times where specificity wins out.

cerement,
@cerement@slrpnk.net avatar

also known as redlining – nominally illegal but almost impossible to enforce (assuming anyone in authority even tries to enforce) …

OutsizedWalrus,

They need to know the state you live in for legal reasons. Some states create hiring problems since they can open the company up to liability by simply having a single employee in that state. Other reasons include ensuring they can actually get you on payroll in that state - as they’ll need to pay into state unemployment on your behalf.

The full address is likely just some default option that’s selected without much actual thought.

ryathal,

It’s not just state. There’s ~11 cities in my state with income taxes.

bionicjoey,

From now on, when they ask me, I’m just going to put a rich person’s address. For this one I used a Brooklyn townhouse where Maggie Gyllenhaal and one of the Saarsgaards lives.

Pull an Elwood Blues and write in the street address for Wrigley Field

Evil_incarnate,

1060 West Addison.

OutOfMemory,

Background check?

PunnyName,

Don’t need address.

Kata1yst,
Kata1yst avatar

Actually they generally need your last 10 years of addresses to make sure the records are connected to the same person.

Drusas,

Depends on the type of background check being performed.

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