Nearly Half of Employers Screen Social Media Profiles

It’s becoming increasingly likely that a prospective employer will check your Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn profile, Mashable reports. A recent survey found that 45% of human-resource departments search the social-media profiles of prospective employees, with another 11% planning to institutionalize a social-networking screen in the near future. And recruiters don’t always like what they see: 35% had disqualified an applicant over objectionable content.

However, sometimes the extra information afforded by social-networking sites is a boon: 18% of employers said that they had found something in a screening that caused them to hire the candidate. (More social networking stories.)