45% of U.S. Firms Now Search Social Sites Before Hiring

A new CareerBuilder survey shows some sad realities for job seekers: If you post inappropriate photos, talk about drinking or drug use, badmouth ex-employers, share confidential workplace information, or are simply a poor communicator, you’re a lot less likely to land that position than you were a year ago.

CareerBuilder said 45 percent of U.S. employees now look up job candidates on social networking sites including FaceBook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter. That’s compared to 22 percent in 2008.

Here’s the clincher: 16 percent of survey respondents rule out a candidate as soon as they read text-messaging language in an e-mail or job application.

That’s nothing to LOL about.