Jobs for Felons in New Jersey

New Jersey's ban-the-box law covers private and public employers with 15 or more employees, including the State, counties, cities, and job placement and temp agencies.

A covered employer cannot ask about your record until after the first interview. That means no question on the application, no question out loud, and no online form that makes you disclose it. If you bring up your record yourself before then, they can ask about it. After the first interview, they can ask.

Law enforcement, corrections, the judiciary, homeland security and emergency management jobs are exempt. So are jobs where a law requires a background check or where a record would legally bar you, and jobs in programs set up to hire people with records.

After the first interview, the law does not stop an employer from turning you down over your record. What it cannot do is refuse you over a record that was expunged or erased by a pardon. That one line is why expungement matters so much here.

Job ads in New Jersey cannot say the employer will not consider anyone who has been arrested or convicted, unless a law allows or requires it for that job.

The state law overrides city and county ban-the-box rules for private employers. Cities and counties can only set rules for their own government hiring.

The NJ Department of Labor can fine an employer up to $1,000 for a first violation, $5,000 for a second and $10,000 for each one after. The fines go to the state. You cannot sue the employer yourself under this law, so the Department of Labor is the path.

Under federal law, a background check company can report a conviction no matter how old it is. Arrests that did not lead to a conviction generally drop off after seven years (the limit does not apply to jobs paying $75,000 a year or more).

For one indictable (felony-level) conviction, or one plus up to three disorderly persons offenses, or several convictions in one judgment or one short spree, you can generally apply 5 years after the latest of: your conviction, paying fines, finishing probation or parole, or release. A court can allow it at 4 years if it finds compelling circumstances.

Some crimes can never be expunged, including criminal homicide (other than death by auto), kidnapping, human trafficking, sexual assault, robbery, arson, perjury and terrorism.

Too many convictions for a regular expungement? You can petition to clear all your New Jersey convictions at once when 10 years have passed since your most recent conviction, payment of fines, finishing probation or parole, or release, whichever is later. Some serious crimes still cannot be cleared.

Unpaid fines do not have to stop you. If the 10 years are up and you did not willfully skip payments, the court can still expunge and turn what you owe into a civil judgment. Clean Slate is still a petition you file, not something that happens on its own.

You can file for expungement online for free through the NJ Courts eCourts Expungement System. You will need your case number. After the order, you can track whether the State Police has processed it on the NJSP Expungement Status Portal. Certain marijuana and hashish cases have their own expungement routes, including ones from the 2021 decriminalization law.

If you were supervised by the State Parole Board, you may be able to ask it for a certificate that lifts legal bars to public jobs and to most professional licenses (not law practice), or a Certificate of Good Conduct, which stops a licensing agency from disqualifying you because of a conviction, with exceptions. The Parole Board's information sheets are older, so check whether this applies to you before you rely on it.

Federal EEOC guidance from 2012 warns employers that blanket “no felons” policies can violate Title VII, but since April 2025 a federal executive order has told agencies to deprioritize this kind of case. In New Jersey, the Opportunity to Compete Act and expungement do most of the practical work.