It neednt be a public register. But, over here in the UK at least, employers can ring the police/public protection service to find out if a potential employee has a criminal record or see if theyre on the sex offenders register. By law, criminals or former prisoners have to state they have a criminal record or unspent conviction.The US is the only country in the world with a public sex offender registry. And it's not working in protecting children. You can still have a criminal record that could prevent you from getting jobs that involve contact with children (teacher, etc.) without having a public sex offender registry.