According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, nearly 14 million people are unemployed; among Latinos, the rate is 12 percent. Moreover, among those who’ve been unemployed for 27 weeks or more, the rate is at 6.8 million. This is 45 percent of the overall unemployed.

With so many job seekers applying for the same position, it is hard to believe that a hiring trend that has emerged among recruiters is “must have a job to apply” or “unemployed candidates will not be considered.”

Employment experts say companies are increasingly interested only in applicants who already have a job, as reported on http://www.money.cnn.com>money.cnn.com. Some employers deduce that if a person has a job in this economy, he or she is capable of holding down any job.

Let’s be realistic, unemployment can happen to anyone, even those who are currently employed. Does unemployment make an undesirable employee? No. Dedicated and proven employees make great new hires.

For this reason, it’s important to keep honing your abilities and skills, and network. It has become more important than ever.

About 80 percent of today’s jobs are not advertised. When a job opening is available, employers may only list it on their website, or place it on job boards.

Employers are tapping employees who they trust and their networks because of their reliability. Saving on placing ads and personnel sorting through a mountain of résumés is another factor.

There is a quiet period as recruiters go through referred résumés, after which job postings may be placed on free websites that are smaller, market or skill specific.

Major job boards are not attracting employers like before either, because they are aimed at bigger pools of job seekers. In this ...