I deal with this a lot in my job. I work for a NPO that helps people get off public aid and about 2/3 to 3/4 of my clients have felony convictions.
The EEOC has directed (through Title VII) that to blanketly disallow felons from applying is discrimination. This is based on the fact that one third of adult African American males have felony convictions and to blanketly deny them is racial discrimination effectively.
That said, remember many if not most governmental organizations exempt themselves from such laws or directives, so what I deal with is the private sector.
In reality it doesn’t change a lot, it just means you cannot issue a blanket statement saying, “Don’t apply for this job if you have a felony.” An employer still has every right to disallow a person from a job if the employer feels it is a risk.
For example, if I run a hotel and an applicant has a felony conviction for theft. That would be a good reason for denying him a job as a cashier. That would not hold up as a reason if he was applying for a dishwasher job, that was supervised while he was there. (One could make the argument s/he could steal dishes if unsupervised.)
Companies do get tax breaks an incentives to hire ex-cons so I find that it is useful to look there, though they are mostly factory type or warehouse jobs and those are becoming very rare.
On the flip side, companies that do hire ex-felons do tend to pay poorly so they may make up any potential loss through minimal wages.
Also employers are prohibited from using arrest records solely to determine negative actions (not hiring or firing etc), as opposed to convictions. But in reality they do this. One of the things we do when helping ex-cons is to go on the Internet and what information can be pulled up.
For example I had a client that had several arrests that he was acquitted for. But I can go to the docket at the county courthouse online and see he was arrested for those crimes. But unless I pay a fee, I can’t see the outcomes.
In theory an employer cannot use that information to “not hire” someone, but in reality they often do. And how could you prove it?
In today’s world there is almost never a case where you will be the only person applying for a job. So an employer can simply say s/he hired what s/he felt was the better candidate.
I have always eventually been able to help someone with a felony get a job, though it can take a long time. I think my longest time I can recall was just under two years. And you may not be able to get the job you want. You may have to rethink your career choice.
The best advice I can give the OP is to delay the question till the second interview. Often I find in middle to executive jobs, just sending in a resume (which won’t have criminal history) is enough to get you an interview. Then you can fill out the application after the interview when you’ve had time to explain your situation.