Why Americans' confidence in finding a new job is tanking even as the labor market is humming along
Why Americans' confidence in finding a new job is tanking even as the labor market is humming along
Americans are the most pessimistic they've been in years about their chances of finding a new job if they lost their current one, a survey suggests.
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I have no earthly clue what world economists are living in where the labor market is great.
I've been looking for a job for over a year (in tech, over a dozen years as an SDE, a dozen more as a TPM, lead role in both titles). Whenever I can get an employer to actually respond to the hundreds of applications I send, their salary offerings are a joke.
Are people just out there taking 20% - 30% haircuts on what they make?
They're measuring job offerings against unemployment claims rate. If there's toilet scrubbing jobs out there and you don't qualify for any benefits: that's a humming labor market to an economist.
I remind people that the fastest way to "create a job" is to take a full time position with benefits, cut the hours in half and divide them amongst two new positions after removing the benefits and now you have a 100% increase in the supply of jobs.
My first 'legal' job when I was a minor was working maintenance at a retirement facility. I was hired along with another high schooler at minimum wage.
It was a summer gig and right before I quit to go back to school the main maintenance guy revealed that we had replaced a single person who was paid our combined wage.
It is a long established strategy.
Haleon/GSK has almost exclusively started offering only coops/internships in upstate NY. Not a single non hourly/salaried position in the last 6 months. Laid off 40-50 in the last year, brought on a dozen students.
What does that mean? You can still claim unemployment if you don't apply to toilet scrubbing jobs
I feel you. I lost my job in January and I've had literally not even a single callback or interview. It's insane.
That sucks too -- but do stick with it, find a good consultant who can help you polish up your resume and socials. You and me both will find something soon enough. :)
Don't lose hope, it's a matter of numbers. Keep pushing. I've recently been through it and it's been very hard
What industry? I'm more of less in the same boat as you. I'm in tech, and this articles assessment seems pretty spot on from my perspective.
Yeah, tech. Updated my original comment to clarify.
Honestly, the bit from the article that rang most accurate was this:
Lastly, it's possible that many Americans think the Bureau of Labor Statistics's job opening figures are overstated. For example, some job seekers have reported encountering "ghost jobs" — listings on job platforms that companies are no longer actively hiring for.
I've been keeping track of the roles I've gone after (well within qualification for) and I'm seeing a lot of re-listings for roles that closed out my application (with no outreach) and just relisted the req after a few weeks, over and over again.
I'm not saying the listings are fake, but if they were fake, this is pretty much what it would look like from the outside.
I'm seeing exactly the same thing. Certain companies re-listing the same position for months on end, despite hundreds of people applying.
According to this article I read recently, some companies are either doing it to give the illusion that they're thriving and planning to take on more staff, or just to keep a pool of potential applicants on the back burner just in case.
It sucks. I've been looking to make a career change for over a year, and have only had two interviews despite sending out literally hundreds of applications.
They're just gaming the system for more H1B's.
Been in the same situation, with closer to mid-level experience. A plethora of companies, constantly hiring for the same positions while rejecting hundreds of applicants, week after week. Makes total sense. I can only hope there's something illegal about it.
I have no earthly clue what world economists are living in where the labor market is great.
100% of employed economists writing these reports are employed, so from their perspective everything is great.