Thanks for the responses.

I said that they shouldn't put it on the resume, but if they filled out an app then they probably would have to. Is that correct?

Any other insights are appreciated.

how long has it been?

for example, if its about 3 months or so, you can leave it off the resume. an employer understands you focused on getting back on your feet.

if you hitting the 6 and 9 plus month period, you may want to include it only to show youve been active somehow in the labor force. also as 1503 suggested do volunteer work in your field or that uses your primary skill sets and include that and you can leave the kmart job off no mater how long its been....

Can they do some volunteer work in their field, so they can include that and it doesn't look like they haven't been doing anything during this time?

So if you lose your job and you have to take a job at Kmart or something, you don't put that on your resume do you? (Assuming your industry has nothing to do with retail) Wouldn't that make your resume look bad? What about if it takes you months and months to get a job...do you leave your resume with that gap, or do you add the non-related experience?

However, if it's a job application, then you have to put the "Kmart job" down? Is that correct?

Someone is asking my advice and I really don't know what to tell them.

If you go from this nice title to bagging groceries (not that there is anything wrong with that), how do you handle that while trying to get back to where you were before?