A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found a new potential threat to job seekers’ chances of landing new employment, and it’s not a lack of soft skills or technical skills—it’s smoking. The habit, the study found, is a significant hindrance in a job search. Researchers have long understood that smoking rates among the unemployed are particularly high, but the question is—do people smoke because they are unemployed, or are they unemployed because they smoke? The study, published last week, seems to indicate the latter is at least partly true. Researchers tracked 131 smokers and 120 nonsmokers who were seeking employment over the course of a year. After 12 months, the smokers were less likely to be employed. Only 27 percent of those who smoked daily had found a job, while 56 percent of the nonsmokers were gainfully employed. “We found an absolute difference of roughly 30 percent—that’s sizable,” said Judith Prochaska, the study’s lead author. Smoking, however, might have been an external manifestation of underlying traits making this group less employable. “The smokers compared to the nonsmokers in our study tended to be men, younger, with less education, poorer overall health, more suburban, often with less stable housing and unreliable transportation,” explained Prochaska.