are employers really so eager to hire right now?

by Alison Green on January 6, 2022

We keep hearing that employers are desperate, can’t find good workers, and jobs are going unfilled … so if you’re currently job-searching, how does that match up with your own experience?

Based on my mail, lots of people are still getting ignored by employers … or offered laughably low salaries … or seeing ads requiring years of experience for “entry-level” jobs. On the other hand, some people are having easier searches right now.

What are you seeing out there, if you’re job-searching or trying to hire?

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  1. Ask a Manager* Post author

    Depending on how this goes, I may quote from some of these responses in a future column — if you don’t want me to do that with yours, please note that!

  2. Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii*

    Back in 2009-ish employers whined about a skills mismatch, how they could not find employees with the employable skills they needed.
    It was code speak for we can’t find people who will work for fractions of a peanut.

      1. Tisiphone*

        On unreasonable requirements: The most common ones I found last time I was job hunting were requirements for 10 years experience with a programming language that hadn’t existed that long. The job wasn’t software development, or even programming.

        Thing to do is apply anyway and ask questions about what your typical day will be like. The people writing up the descriptions often don’t know what the job actually is.

        1. MBK*

          I work in tech and I see this *all the time*. It’s a sure sign of an employer who doesn’t even take the time to understand what they’re asking for.

          1. Xenos*

            What also happens sometimes I’ll rewrite, send it up and it never gets reposted. Or another HR person quits and gave to start it over lol

          2. Zephyr*

            Or employers who hear “full stack developer” and think it means like the person who can sing, dance, and act (triple threat), and they would be getting a much better employee by insisting on a full stack developer… for a job that maybe requires just one of those things, or possibly even just some part of one or even none of those things. They get wrapped up in the hype/lingo instead of just reading the resume/talking to the candidate to see if they’re a good fit for the work required.

            I do web design as a hobby and a friend of mine said he needed a website for his startup company. I wanted the practice of doing web design for someone else’s specs instead of my own, so offered to do it for free. He then asked me to code something that was out of my skill set, so I looked it up to figure out how to code that one thing. Keep in mind it’s just a hobby for me. There are too many people out there with excellent coding skills and an education to match, for me to compete with them as someone self-taught. I then casually mentioned the words “full stack developer” and he asked what that meant. I explained it to him and now he won’t stop chirping about wanting one of those. For the record, his webpage is incredibly simple and professional in design and has no need for backend coding, databases, or anything. It’s purely a page where he advertises what his company does and tells you how to contact him if you’d like to hire them for their services.

      2. Funbud*

        From my own search, I am rarely seeing a “regular” admin assistant role. I realize this job function has changed and morphed into a role with more responsibilities, but the roles I am seeing are demanding a lot of work for not much money. Also, requiring very specific software experience ehich most general admins don’t have. Feels like many positions are trying to “pluck” existing employees from other companies rather than offering openings for a job seekers.

            1. Pants*

              Yup. I’ve been an admin/EA most of my work career, sometimes with a different type of title. I’m doing some admin work at my current company but with a wildly different title than I’ve ever seen anywhere. It’s also a new industry to me, so maybe it’s not as wildly different as I think? That said, I can’t help but think that the difference in title has something to do with the $13k higher salary than my last job. That difference is for me as a contractor. Once I’m hired on, I get another raise. There has to be something to that, don’t you think?

              1. jojo*

                Government contract? Then. Yes the job field category definatly effects your pay scale. Ground support pays less than aviation or ships support. Partly has to do with security concerns. Plus personal risk in on site work areas. Much more to the break down.

                1. Pants*

                  That’s good to know! It’s not what I’m in right now, but I’m not opposed to it at all. I work for …. say…. a large entity that’s tech but with a more granular focus. Not FB or any of the biggies in Silicon Valley. (Trying not to point a finger directly at myself, you know?) It’s not an evil tech company by any means. In fact, I’ve found it a little odd at how WELL they treat their employees. Made me realise I’ve got some PTSD from working with a bunch of bungholes for a looooong time. Sad to be surprised at a company that treats its employees well, but happy to be working for that company! (Everyone starts contract. I’ll convert.)

        2. WFH is all I Want*

          I’ve noticed this too. There’s also an increase in frequency with responsibilities including being on call during evenings, weekends, holidays, and scheduled PTO. I skip those jobs entirely.

        3. Emotional Support Care’n*

          I’m seeing it be either a new term for “receptionist” or becoming the office manager role with, as you’ve said, no money (still being paid like the receptionist).

          1. fluffy*

            Or it could be worse; two jobs ago I was at a lousy little startup where the “office admin” was one of the few software engineers who was a woman. It absolutely was not her desire to be the office admin but the duties were foisted upon her and it was her first job out of college, so she had a hard time pushing back for a bunch of reasons.

            I ended up leaving that place after 6 months. It was toxic and weird.

        4. Jax*

          From my search, I’m seeing HR merged with admin assistant/office manager duties. Inflated title, responsible for every imaginable problem at the office level, and a $40,000 salary.

          Pass.

          2. Li*

            Don’t forget payroll/bookkeeping! And probably only part time hours, but enough work for 2 full time jobs.

            I really want to get out of healthcare support (not because I don’t enjoy it, but because the past 2 years have burnt me out on dealing with my fellow humans), but those positions are only offering $12-$15/hr for 30 hours per week or less in my area.

        5. Random Biter*

          I had an interview for an admin asst position at an area senior development..everything from a central, nursing home type environment to apartment living. When I inquired as to job specifics I was told in addition to the regular office type things like answering the phone, greeting visitors, dispensing mail, etc. I would also be the “fiscal agent” for the residents (meaning I would be in charge of their in-house “checking accounts”) AND I would be in charge of the 2 apartment buildings including renting and evicting residents. WTAF. All this and more for crummy benefits and $12 an hour. I thanked the interviewer and got the heck outta Dodge.

          2. jojo*

            Property manager/accountant/General funky? 12 per hour. No way. That one hundred thousand worth of jobs. Three jobs actually. At minimum of 40,000 per job. And no way to do all three jobs in a fourty hour week. Just a cheap company. And you need a cpa for accounting. Something else for property management so you know laws and resources. I bet property management and elder care also involves OSHA. that job violates so many laws just from the general description.

          4. Overit*

            Friend of mine turned down a similar admin job at a therapy office. Required minimum of 5 years experience, bachelor degree (but MA preferred) with the longest list of duties I have ever seen — including all janitorial duties. For $12/hour and no benefits.

        6. Pikachu*

          I have seen ads for office manager/admin roles that want wordpress and photoshop design experience.

          They want people to be everything for everyone and require a master’s degree to do it… for $15/hr.

          Get. Out.

          1. Katie*

            Oh hey, that’s my old job! Redesign and maintain the website, respond to client emails and phone calls, handle all social media/brochure/business card design needs, and maintain the schedule for the entire facility. $16/hour, no benefits. They were so surprised when I left!

          2. Stargazer*

            That’s not new – they were trying ten years ago to get combo IT/admin/graphic designer/animation/AV/web “gurus” for the same low price of $11.95/hr in the Boston area. It was so bad I stopped even looking at “graphic design” classifieds because they inevitably ALSO wanted a website builder/3-D animator/social media expert along with the full-time job of print media expert!

          3. Mrs. Hawiggins*

            I saw an ad the other day for Receptionist that required a Real Estate license. Seemed very odd but you could kind of see where it was going further into the job description.

        7. Pluckyduck*

          I genuinely like my job. It’s interesting. I have a decent salary, great benefits, and a flexible schedule including working from home a few days a week. However, with everyone supposedly hiring, you would be stupid not to cast your net and see what they are offering.

          First, if it’s work from home it’s either a scam company ie MLM or its until we reopen our office. Nah. Lower salary, which is ridiculous because I am in the rural Midwest. Our salaries are already low. Or they completely ghost you.

          My mom is in her early 60s and would love to change careers. She makes pennies as gm of a fast food restaurant, but no one in the area will pay that much.

        8. Joie De Vivre*

          I’ve seen the same sort of thing.

          I saw a Tea Pot Clerk (hourly job) with pay to match. But when I read the job description, it included a lot of Tea Pot Generalist duties. The Tea Pot Generalist is usually a well comped salaried position.

          That company wanted a lot of sugar for its nickel.

          1. MigraineMonth*

            I’ve noticed that for quite a while for software developer jobs. The role is “Front End Website Developer”, but they also want you to have expertise in backend, database management, server management and IT support. They basically want a 1-person IT department, but the pay is in line with the title rather than the highest-paying of the jobs listed.

      3. Not A Girl Boss.*

        It’s been a particularly frustrating time to be an employee at my company. We are positively buried at work – literally, our sales doubled last year. After people got too burned out to make it work and the company started to suffer, boatloads of new hires were authorized. Our company culture is great. We actually pay very competitively. But we have been absolutely incapable of finding people to fill the roles, and it’s our fault. I think we’re making a few key mistakes:
        1) Our hiring practices come across as somewhat shady. For some reason we are really hell bent on using the kinds of recruiters I ignore on LinkedIn because I assume Really Bad Companies are hiding behind the anonymity of it. It’s so bizarre, we have 5 star reviews on all the major job platforms so why hide who we are?!
        2) For hourly labor, we insist on temp-to-perm job postings. No sane good worker would leave an ok permanent job for a temp job in this economy. They say it’s about making sure they’re a good worker before they take on the “risk” of hiring them, but is it really that much risk in an at will state?
        3) I feel like they value bizarrely specific experience over people who are willing to take the initiative, learn, and work hard.
        Example A) We seem to strongly value anyone who has ever worked in manufacturing before, as if willingness to do so is a special skill. I have been feeling very tempted to walk into my local food service establishments and pass out flyers that say “sick of dealing with people? What if I told you there’s a job where you have predictable hours, can put your headphones in, not talk to anyone for 8 hours, and make more than you are right now. In exchange you have to wear safety glasses and sometimes there will be dirt on your company provided shoes.”
        Example B) We are hiring for a very specific technical skill that no one has and companies constantly get in bidding wars to retain their talent for. I suggested we work with a local college who has such a specialty program to recruit an eager young person, and hire a consultant to answer their questions a few hours a week. They will only settle for someone with 10+ years experience willing to work at half the (admittedly insane) market rate.
        3) It’s 2021 and most managers still see someone who wants to permanently WFH as a less-invested candidate. As a result we keep passing on eminently qualified candidates who simply prefer not to work in person.
        4) We turn away any candidate that so much as hints that they do a job to make money, because our “company culture” is about caring and not about money. Even though we do in fact pay well. Better not ask for the pay bands until you’ve gone through 6 rigorous interviews or you’re out.

        1. BlueChimera*

          > I feel like they value bizarrely specific experience over people who are willing to take the initiative, learn, and work hard.

          Along those lines: My husband has been interviewing to do the same thing I do (which is software configuration — and frankly, pretty basic stuff). I was lucky enough to be hired with no IT background & no formal IT-related education by a manager who was able to see my potential. My husband doesn’t have any formal IT-related education or any experience with *this specific software,* but he has a ton of *general* IT experience and — in my opinion — is pretty clearly a smart guy.

          And, honestly, if you can figure out how to make a pivot table in Excel (alone or with Google’s help), you could almost certainly do my job. But instead they’re prioritizing people who have touched *this specific software* in any capacity (on the tech side or even just as a user), as though it’s mysteriously hard if you haven’t.

          The major problem being that most ABC Software users don’t *want* to be ABC Software techs (of course) and there’s a very small pool of existing ABC Software techs because no one seems to want to hire anyone without prior ABC experience.

          There’s even a test from ABC Software that’s supposed to tell if you’re going to be a decently competent analyst / able to configure their software correctly (because they don’t want their software to be blamed for failures when it’s just been configured poorly), and he’s taken & passed that. So I honestly don’t know what they’re looking for that he doesn’t have. I helped him refine his resume, did some mock interviews with him, even took Alison’s idea of having him mock-interview *me* for the position, and still, multiple managers have interviewed & rejected him.

          Meanwhile, my company has a bunch of these positions open & after 6+ months of searching, they’ve only extended offers to a tiny handful of candidates.

          (And of course this isn’t the only thing he’s interviewing for. He’s also tried to get LAN Admin positions, even IT help desk stuff… and for those, he hasn’t been able to even get as far as the interview. Possibly automated systems rejecting him? I guess we’ll never know. I’m starting to wonder if he’s only even getting interviews here because I used our internal process to recommend him for these roles…)

    2. Yet another person*

      I just started my search a couple weeks ago and am seeing the usual low pay for lots of specific experience BS in my area in IT so far. But, someone I know in healthcare just started looking Monday and already has multiple interviews lined up for tomorrow.

      We are in Florida. Results may depend on the field and geographic area you are working in!

      1. graphic designer*

        I’ve been searching since August and it’s as slow as it always is. Tons of resumes sent out, very little response. So far I got one phone interview that was scheduled, then the recruiter emailed me a week later saying she had booked me with the “wrong recruiter,” and she’d be in touch in 2 weeks to reschedule. Sounded like BS to me (why do we need to wait 2 weeks just to reschedule?) and it was. Got ghosted, not sure why the subterfuge was even necessary.

        I had a for-real phone screen yesterday, but that’s IT in the last 5 months.

        Occasionally a recruiter will reach out asking me if I’m interested in a job I’ve already applied for, or about contract-to-hire jobs, which is what I’m looking to leave, so no leads from there either.

        1. Sloanicote*

          To be fair, in my sector I’ve job-searched during what was supposedly a historic low point for job searching (2008) and a supposed boom period when the economy was great, and in both cases the search took about the same amount of time and frustration but eventually worked out for me. Partly that must be due to my sector – nonprofit – but I suspect all job searches, like politics, are local.

        2. Final.ai*

          I’ve been searching for 9 months for a mid to senior level designer role. I’ve applied to 139 remote roles (I work full time in an office so I have limited time to job search), have gotten initial interest from 11 companies, and made it to the final round for 3 roles. No offers. I’ve scrutinized and updated my portfolio, resume, and linkedin. I’ve been in the industry for 10 years, and have never had an issues getting a new job before. The longest it’s taken me is 3 months, only because the area I lived in had limited roles. All that to say, I’m right there with you and I don’t know what to do about it. I’m exhausted.

      2. Peon1*

        Yeah, it really seems to depend on the industry. I’m in the museum and heritage sectors, and there’s hardly been a blip in new vacant positions. The new ones I’ve seen pop up recently are admin-type roles in galleries. They don’t pay much either.

        1. workswitholdstuff*

          Yeah, I’m also in the sector, and there’s little-to-none out there at there at the moment, it’s still overly credentialistic for very little recompense (though there are campains in the UK to change this attitude, it’s slow going. ‘Fair Museum Jobs’ are the ones to follow on twitter re that).

          Most of what I’m seeing are temporary contracts too, and that’s a seperate rant. The focus on short, funded projects over long-term activity is not great…

    3. Birdie*

      My organization is “struggling” to fill a role, complaining about how they can’t find anyone qualified and when they do find someone somewhat qualified, they get turned down.

      Well, no kidding. The position is a combination of two very different jobs, so good luck find someone with several years of commercial land transaction experience AND volunteer management experience. Oh, and you want to pay this experienced person who has to do two very different jobs and report to two different supervisors peanuts?

      No wonder they’ve been trying to hire for this position since JULY.

      1. PT*

        I was one of those hiring managers. I was trying to hire 10-15 let’s say llama trainers. The prevailing wage for llama trainer in my area was $15-17 and my boss would not let me offer more than $11. Any time I interviewed someone who was willing to open negotiations for the job he’d complain they wanted too much money, or find something else wrong with them, and make me pass on them. He would then bring me candidates who he approved of, but were not llama trainers and would not be able to pass the llama trainer certification test. Then he would yell at me that llama training was canceled.

        1. Cheap Ass Rolex*

          Sounds like a perfect candidate for the “We’re all trying to find the guy who did this” hot dog guy meme.

      2. No Longer Gig-less Data Analyst*

        I worked for a company from 2010-2015 that needed to fill a role around Import/Export compliance. This role would involve developing internationally compliant procedures and writing an entire manual on such from scratch. My take after doing some research (because at one point they wanted me to do it AS A SIDE PROJECT) was that this should probably have been filled by someone with about 5-10 years of relevant experience.

        Instead they hire a series of freshly minted college graduates, all of whom quit within a year. They cycled through 4 of them in my 5 years there, and I keep seeing them looking on LinkedIn so my guess is they are still hiring at well below the experience level needed because they don’t want to pay a seasoned professional. How they haven’t been fined out of business is beyond me at this point, considering how they were literally flying by the seat of their pants with transportation and international trade compliance. Boggles my mind.

        1. Pants*

          I was in the compliance department in my most previous job life. They were especially stingy with admins and in-house lawyers, which is why we lost them constantly. However, Trade Compliance was a whole other ballgame. They actually paid very well for TC, especially for people who have certifications. The Trade Compliance team was incredibly competent and we still were hit with fines now and again. My eyes nearly fell out of my face when I read your comment.

          1. Pam Poovey*

            This doesn’t surprise me at all… I work in import/export and have been with my company for 3 years… I was hired 3 years ago to handle office admin & accounting stuff. Under $20/hr. It very quickly morphed into office admin, accounting, import and export operations, compliance, etc. Then they got rid of 1/3 of our staff and had me traveling between offices (in different states) for half of last year. I am now essentially the office manager, admin, finance, compliance, training, and all operations that my boss doesn’t want to handle… for under $50k. I’m not sure what else I could do to get a salary and title that match my actual responsibilities, and very little of my experience and knowledge would be transferable to another field. Living the American dream.

            1. Pants*

              I hope you’re looking? (Don’t suppose you want to tell me what state you’re in? I’m in TX. I say that while facepalming.) Does the company at the VERY LEAST let you keep your airline miles accrued from your travel?

            2. DJ Abbott*

              Are there any good staffing agencies where you are? I am working with one who says I am the perfect profile for a job I never would have heard of otherwise.
              If there are any staffing agencies near you, send your résumé to all of them and follow up. They will be able to figure out what jobs you are well-suited for and might be able to get you one.

        2. President Porpoise*

          Woo boy, as an import/export compliance professional who develops procedures (among other things) for a large company – those folks are playing with fire. Trade compliance is a complex monster.

        3. TimeisMoney*

          And given that every new employee costs are least $10k to onboard and then has to get up to speed, the amount of money they lost rather than just paying the right person

          1. Sloanicote*

            This is what kills me. My office fiddles around trying to hire part time people or train up new graduates for complex roles, and when they burn out or flame out, which happens after a year or so, they do it again. After five years of this nonsense you could have just paid a competent person fairly given the start up costs and training, not to mention whatever task you wanted the role for is just not getting done.

        4. No Longer Gig-less Data Analyst*

          Thank you all for confirming I wasn’t crazy! I went to one half-day seminar on the topic and came back saying that there was no way I would be responsible for Trade Compliance. I was a Cost Accountant with no prior experience in Manufacturing or Supply Chain. That seminar scared the bejeezus out of me, I basically said “I’m too soft for Federal prison if I screw up” and went along my merry way.

          1. Pants*

            I put on a huge event each year when I was in Compliance. We’d have speakers come in and such. One guy named his session: “What to do when the black SUVs pull up to your house.” (answer: get a lawyer and say your prayers, basically)

            I did some research for due diligence compliance but I said hell no to anything on the trade side. I’m not signing my name on forms, thank you.

            1. Rulekeeper Willie*

              I do federal grant compliance and management which involved a lot administrative work including procurement. I have never once worried about civil liability for a screw-up. They have insurance for that! Hell they have insurance for bad publicity… for screw ups the worst case is firing. Now, I will say that is unless you did something like embezzlement or other criminal activity , that’s a different ball game. Then you get the lawyer.

              1. Pants*

                Some of our speakers were fresh out of prison for embezzlement, kickbacks, insider trading, and the like. (They were always the most popular.) I am always amazed that people have the gumption to do stuff like that. I talk a good game, but I’m comparatively, I am a goody goody school girl and I’m fine with that.

              2. Hillary*

                Not exactly. International compliance includes foreign corrupt practices act and a few other things. In the US your employer isn’t allowed to indemnify you, you’re personally/criminally on the hook for some things. In some other countries the employer can’t indemnify you period. If, not at all using a real example from many moons ago, someone carries a suitcase full of electronics to China without a customs declaration because they didn’t know better, that someone is the one in Chinese jail. If I signed the paperwork for a shipment I knew was going to Iran I’m personally liable for allowing it in addition to my company being fined.

                There’s a great publication from Treasury called “Don’t Let This Happen to You.” In practice there are very few circumstances where an honest international compliance mistake will send someone to federal prison or get personally fined, but it does happen.

                This is one of many reasons I got out of compliance.

          2. Crazyoboe*

            In my area, certain school districts have greatly upped their sub pay – one district went to $200 a day. Others are still trying to pay $85-90 a day, which was a good sub salary when I graduated back in ’05. Guess which district doesn’t have a sub shortage? One school was advertising for a “building sub” which is a position where you report to the same school every day and sub for whoever is absent. Usually, it’s a salaried position because you are part of the staff and are there every day. If no teachers are absent, they have you help out with small groups or whatnot. This school was still trying to pay that position $90 a day. Not even the slightly higher long term sub rate, just $90. Ridiculous.

      3. Venti vanilla latte breve*

        This happened to me at my former company. They wanted to hire an admin assistant (because their current one was so terrible at her job but they wouldnt fire her for some reason). They couldnt get leadership approval for that position, so they reworked the position to include a bunch of additional, non-related duties and that position was approved.

        Of course, I didnt have this information when I accepted the job, so imagine my surprise when the job turned out to be 80% admin work, 20% technical work. I lasted three months before I left for a better job/company.

        1. Sarah55555*

          So you were expecting a more technical job and showed up only to find out that you were actually the admin? Who’d have thought that would go wrong.

          1. Venti vanilla latte breve*

            The job was positioned to me as leading a large scale projects. In my prior role, i was a people manager and frequently worked with c-suite leadership.

            What they actually needed was someone to schedule meetings, take notes, and come up with fun icebreakers. :(

    4. WellRed*

      The so called lack of skilled employees has been a tired refrain in my area for years. Train people and pay better.

    5. Richard Hershberger*

      I remember fondly the articles about machine shops trying to hire experienced machinists for what McDonalds was paying.

      1. Me (I think)*

        Wasn’t there some guy out in the Midwest somewhere who got a lot of press 10 years ago complaining about the lazy workers who don’t want to work? Didn’t it turn out that he wanted to pay machinists $10 an hour, instead of the $25/hour they could get elsewhere?

        Yeah, I didn’t feel sorry for him.

        1. Starbuck*

          What poor journalism, if the press was not including that info in the first reports! Yikes.

      2. Anonymous4*

        I worked at a place where we had a home office that lowballed salaries, and could afford to do so because they didn’t need highly skilled workers. Someone comes in, works as an admin for a year or two, gets a better job, they get another admin.

        We needed engineers. Terribly short-staffed. Home office wanted us to hire experienced engineers at a new-admin wage. AIN’T HAPPENIN’.

        And then they’d get indignant and want to know why our projects were all behind schedule. I may or may not have heard my boss shouting through his closed door, “Go ahead! You fire me, you’ll be short another engineer! And THEN what?”

      3. Ashley*

        I worked in medical billing in northeast Ohio, where you can throw a stick and hit a healthcare facility. We have mega-health systems like the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, and they have their own billing departments. I regularly had staff resign to take a job at the Clinic or UH, doing the exact same job as they were for me, but making $2/hour more. Still, I had to sit through hours of upper management bemoaning our high turnover rates and inability to fill positions plus special management trainings on things like employee recognition and wellness and communication where I was told “people don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad managers.” We were cajoled and berated about what we supervisors and managers were doing or not doing to keep staff. But actually bite the bullet and start offering people a more competitive hourly rate? That suggestion was rejected out of hand.

        1. Dust Bunny*

          . . . I mean, they are leaving bad managers. Well, bad management. Not you, but the higher-ups who won’t pay adequately.

    6. Snark*

      My feeling is that there’s a lot of employers who are slow, or choosing to be slow, on the uptake, and have not internalized the implications of the massive sea change in the job market. And so they still operate on a model of “what’s the most I can underpay my staff” and cannot comprehend that they are in a seller’s market for labor.

      1. EmbarassedBee*

        Yes, this. They just refuse to accept that anything has changed. In my field, I’m seeing a ton more postings for jobs over the last month or so, and I’ve had multiple recruiters contact me just this week. But the job descriptions are wildly demanding, even more so than pre-pandemic. So many very specific skills that you’d be very unlikely to find in one person, and ridiculous “we’re a family” statements that we all know are code for “This Workplace has no Boundaries”.

        I had a client rant to me recently about how they weren’t getting “good” candidates for their positions. I suggested that they consider focusing the JD a bit more on the skills they most want, and he got really defensive and just said again how much they needed all this work done. Then YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT. There is just utter disbelief that they no longer hold 100% of the cards. I really hope we keep it going for long enough that they will have no choice.

        1. Snark*

          You can have an employee who is cheap, good, and/or satisfied. Pick two. These idiots seem to think they can get two or three employees’ worth of KSAs in one person, load them up proportionately, pay them below market rate, trample their work/life balance and boundaries…..and then they’re shocked, shocked! when they have constant turnover, bad morale, and poor output. Nobody’s here for that bullshit anymore.

        2. Sloanicote*

          I had to stop my boss from going on a “kids these days” rant. I just … couldn’t hear it. We pay terrible wages and crap benefits but she thinks people are going to do nights and weekends, 80 hour weeks, like she thinks she did coming up (but probably for the exact same amount of pay in a time when other things were cheaper).

        3. IT manager*

          We can’t easily change the pay rates (long term client contracts) so are finding that we have to hire junior resources at senior rates – picking those that *just* qualify for the senior levels but need much more handholding than we’d normally hire for.

          So, effectively, we’re paying more for the same work! Now we’re paying the senior rate PLUS the non billable salary of whoever is doing the handholding….

            2. Tisiphone*

              I hate that, too.

              Several years ago, I came across a powerpoint presentation aimed at upper management, referring to VP and up as “talent” and everyone else as “resources”. Talent are valuable people, resources are interchangeable and easily replaced.

      2. Starbuck*

        Well, for some fields. In my field (outdoor / environmental education) it’s business as usual, which is dozens of applicants for jobs with no benefits and often below minimum wage (not a labor violation – it’s allowed when you’re a residential camp and include room & board). Lots of places that are non profits are also still relying on unpaid interns to do program work. It’s a field that tends to churn young / recent college grads through temporary and seasonal work, with extreme competition for the few full-time year-round positions that are still being posted at the same low salaries as five years ago.

        Actually the main improvement in that field was raising the federal minimum-salary-threshold a couple years back.

        2. Libellulebelle*

          Yes, exactly why I recently decided to leave the environmental education field and retrain as a nurse. No shortage of jobs there! Possibly I’m crazy, though.

          1. Starbuck*

            Nursing wouldn’t be my choice, but I’m definitely thinking about what my strategy would be if (realistically, when) the cost of living in my area outpaces what the place I’m working at can pay.

      3. Icy-Imagination*

        I feel this to the core. It’s as if Corporate companies are fighting back as much as they can possibly stand until they have no one left to keep even their basic of operations running.

    7. Butters*

      My employer is absolutely desperate for another key staff member, but doesn’t want to give any more than a week vacation. Won’t budge at all. It’s incredibly short sighted.

      1. Snark*

        Absolute madness. Even two weeks of vacation is insufficient, one is an insult. An employer should WANT an employee to take more than two weeks off a year, to reduce burnout and improve work/life balance. It’s like they have no idea how to think past the next month.

      2. DrRat*

        I had my sister practically slack jawed recently when I told her about my company’s PTO policy. Our salaries aren’t as high as some competitors, but our PTO is almost unheard of in our industry. (I’ll be going up to 29 PTO days and 8 holidays next year – with no evenings, weekends, or on call work. Max here is 34 PTO days, but you can choose to purchase an additional 5. So with holidays, you can end up with 47 days a year off – basically a day off a week!)

        1. mee*

          My company shuts down for one day a month and everyone has that off. In addition, we have 14 holidays. so that’s 26 days w/out taking any time off of my own choosing…BUT.. In addition, we have unlimited PTO (and we actually get chastised if we don’t use it enough). So yeah it’s pretty insane where I work

      3. Sloanicote*

        My work has two weeks and it expires at the end of the year! And the salary does NOT compensate. They can’t figure out how they can’t hire!

    8. RC Rascal*

      Back in 2009 I applied to a job who wanted someone who “Excelled at working alone and also with others. “

      Didn’t get an interview.

      And which one is it they actually wanted ?!?!

      1. Loulou*

        I mean…probably both? I feel like some version of “must work well independently and as part of a team” is pretty standard job description boilerplate.

        1. PT*

          This says to me, “We had someone in this role previously who didn’t do any work unless they were being babysat, and we also had someone in this role previously who was a giant ass and couldn’t get along with anyone. So we’re putting in a boilerplate line that is confusing to jobseekers to combat that.”

          1. Loulou*

            I just don’t see how it’s confusing! Teamwork is a huge part of my job and anyone who’s not a good collaborator will not do well. At the same time, you need to be happy with tasks and projects that can be pretty solitary. The ideal candidate is happy with this balance…others may prefer a more solitary or more collaborative role, both of which exist. What do you think is a better way to convey that?

            1. Loulou*

              ETA – I agree when a phrase like that is ubiquitous on every job ad, it becomes meaningless and that can be confusing. But there’s nothing vague or confusing about the statement itself IMO.

              1. BubbleTea*

                It’s a bit like dating profiles that say “I like going out and staying in! My hobbies are reading, watching TV and listening to music!” It tells you essentially nothing of any use at all.

              2. Ashley*

                It reminds me of when jobs were posted in the newspaper and you paid by the word. I think listing both and giving a better description can be more helpful then saying both things must be true. Some people are can do it but IMO most people tend to favor one over the other and would want to know which was the job might lean.

        2. TechWorker*

          Right, it might not exactly be the worlds smoothest wording but it also doesn’t sound like a terrible thing to request.

            1. Not A Girl Boss.*

              They could buy both a horse and a horn. But it’s cheaper to hire a horse and berate it each day for not having a horn, until it runs away for greener pastures.

    10. Siege*

      In my very casual job searching, jobs in non-profit communications in the Seattle area are still paying the same $50,000 they paid back in 2008-2010. Our average salary is over $70,000, and may be over $100,000 at this point, so it’s way underwater.

      1. Sloanicote*

        Yes I would say nonprofit salaries in my area haven’t budged much in my entire career; 35K to start out, 50K at mid level, the directors might make 80 or around 100K. Meanwhile other costs, like insurance, education, housing, have skyrocketed. It’s … fun.

    11. joriley*

      Exactly. My workplace has a ton of positions open right now, and the ones I’m most familiar with are struggling to get good candidates… mostly because the pay is way too low for the experience/expertise they want. So there *are* a lot of positions open, but it’s still not a job-seeker’s market there because the organization has yet to adjust to the reality that they can’t take advantage of people they way they used to.

      1. IT Manager*

        I think it will take a while, assuming the candidate shortage stays the same, for most orgs to adjust.

        Any large org is currently looking at their approved salary bands and doing market research on their competitors and making the business case to the CEO/Board/decisionmakers who are pushing back in several cycles of “well I can’t pay more than my competitors or our product will be too expensive”

        It will take a while to adjust.

      2. Kay*

        Ha – same with my industry. My clients for over a year have been wailing about how they can’t find ANYONE to fill ANY positions and they are all overworked and one resignation away from disaster.

        Apparently, recruiters found a very old resume of mine somewhere (I’m talking it has to be a good 15+ years old) and have been hounding me nonstop. I figured, what the heck, if all my clients are feeling so much pain they must be willing to pay well and maybe I can do some part time, on my own hiding from Omicron time, easy work if I were to feel like it – and perhaps even get some benefits. I choked on my coffee when one guy sent over the “excellent” hourly pay of $17.50/hr for an experienced CONTRACT worker-so not even any benefits!!!! I guess my client offering 25/hr wasn’t so bad??

        I completely understand why the industry can’t hire.

    12. Saraaaaah*

      I have been off- and- on looking for mid-level nonprofit work since February 2020 (got a new job fall of 2020 that turned out to be a bad fit and almost immediately started looking again, albeit more pickily). I feel like I was getting more traction in fall 2020 than any other time.

      Kind of thought it was just my imagination so it’s interesting to see others confirm that the job market isn’t as great as it’s cracked up to be for them, either.

    13. Emma*

      I’m finding employers are desperate, but not willing to sacrifice on any of their requirements. Here for example it’s all diploma this, so many years of experience that.. I’ve seen positions readvertised 4 times over because they didn’t get what they wanted out of their first, second or third advertisements. There is the occasional different employer but it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.

      1. Ashley*

        I worked for a place that kept required a high school diploma and additional education preferred for a job that paid $10-$12 and honestly didn’t need an education requirement. It took a lot of energy to try and explain why they should remove unnecessary requirements when you pay less then local retail.

    14. KitCat*

      That is still going on. My current employer has been talking for the last few years that our employees are going to need a whole new skill set. When I ask what those skills will be so we can train them – there’s no real response. The leadership can’t articulate it, but somehow the employees should know and should already be “up-skilling”. For the skills and the jobs that the company can’t describe but is 100% sure will be vastly different than what they do now… I’m assuming this is thinly veiled code for “you’re all too old and too expensive and we assume people under 30 will somehow have the right skills at the right price”.

    15. Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii*

      Please quote my posts.
      What really struck me was how insistent they were that they were hiring but could not find anybody. They believed their own code speak and could not fathom why people with a degree and 5-10 years of experience would not work for not much over minimum wage.
      People were desperate for jobs after all, they “should” have taken what crumbs employers were offering and be grateful for it.

    16. Pennycress*

      As a December 2010 College Graduate, I agree with this take. I was essentially told. Take a job, any job because there aren’t many. I did turn down two roles which I felt something was off (in hind sight, I’m so glad I listened to my gut there) and eventually took a role which was salaried and interesting, but once I calculated it considering the amount work expected, it was far sub minimum wage. Starting so low on the overall salary ladder has definitely impacted me as I have progressed through my career, now 11 years in!

  3. zolk*

    At least in my field, I don’t see much posted, and what is available is either pretty junior or extremely senior, with nothing in-between.

    1. Miss Fisher*

      Same for me. There really isnt any place for people in my area which is mid level at the company to go right now. But lots of junior roles or C-suite roles.

    3. Save Bandit*

      PRECISELY this. I’m either massively under-qualified or missing the required decade of management experience. It’s so disheartening.

        1. Exhausted Trope*

          Yes, agree. I started my hunt in earnest early 2021 and didn’t secure a mid-level position until December. Most of the positions in my field were either entry-level or required 10+ years experience. I have almost 5 years so I am very lucky to find a mid-level position in an international company that not only pays well but allows flexible schedules and some WFH.

      2. Evonon*

        I find so odd that the century of experience requirement that have been plaguing entry to mid level jobs hasn’t gone away during this time

      1. Peon1*

        Same! I work in museums and heritage. The only mid-level positions I saw open up last year were for a newly-created government office. I interviewed but ultimately withdrew my application. I’d lived in that area before. The salary isn’t going to cut it.

    5. WellRed*

      Same here (journalism niche). The rare occasion I see a post they make vague references to pivot to video (meaning they have no idea what they want) and offer low 30s for salary. In a high cost of living area.

      1. SpiderLadyCeo*

        Yes! I work in the nonprofit sector, and in my previous high COL city, the HIGHEST pay I was seeing for midlevel jobs was 50k. You can make it work in that city, making 50k, but it’s not easy, and they don’t give you raises. It was endlessly frustrating to live and work there because you’re scraping by to live in a single studio and the condos and townhomes nearby are going for 800k.

        1. Seanchaigirl*

          Ugh, same. I’m not actively looking but I saw a listing come across in my former high COL city for a director-level position at an organization whose mission I am particularly passionate about. Out of curiosity I read through it and the salary range was capped in the low 40s. For the person who will be leading fundraising and communications! I make 60% more than that now in my lower COL city at the same job level and don’t have to deal with the public. Hard pass.

          1. MiloSpiral*

            the salary range was capped in the low 40s. For the person who will be leading fundraising and communications!

            ……o damn. I don’t manage anyone (my org is tiny; 2.5 employees) but because we’re so small I essentially lead fundraising and communications. I already knew I was grossly underpaid, and am actively searching, but your post really hit me.

            I make probably half that.

    6. Ally McBeal*

      This was my issue too (I’m in the communications field)! I finally gave up and applied for positions a little less senior than my experience level would dictate, and the company that offered me the job told me they were automatically bumping me up by one seniority level because of my experience. Plus I’m starting to get the sense that I’ve been recognized by top execs enough that I might be able to bump up another level within a year-ish of my hire date.

    7. Smithy*

      This is 100% what I’m seeing. The available roles in my sector are largely VP/C-suite or quite junior/temporary.

      In my sector, about 6 months ago there was a huge wave of more mid/mid-senior level roles that allowed for those either looking to leave or open to being recruited for natural fits. What remains from that larger shuffle now are the very senior roles and the more junior ones. On the very senior side, I would say that a number of those roles have been a struggle to fit due to a larger sector focus on mid level roles specializing. So that when all of a sudden they want a VP to manage Tea, Chocolate and Coffee pots after focusing on only Teapots for the last fifteen years – the talent pool is a touch wonky.

      Essentially the jobs everyone wants are the ones that allow for greater and greater individual specialization with minimal management (i.e. Teapot Specialist Sr. Advisor), but that’s not what’s available.

      I’m also in fundraising that largely speaking is an industry dominated by women and not exactly the number 1 job you hear anyone say they want when they want to work in the nonprofit sector. Like a number of professional sectors dominated by women, when the job market is tight – those entry level fundraising jobs gets more applicants by “anyone” looking to break into the sector. When the job market favors job seekers…those junior roles are harder to fill.

    8. Aggretsuko*

      It was pretty same old, same old looking at the job listings in my field. My organization takes months to get permission to hire anyone and has to go through three levels of permissions to hire. And at times the job listing gets yanked ANYWAY for HR reasons.

    9. Evonon*

      I’ve noticed this too. I don’t know what field you’re on but in the non profit sphere I’m seeing a lot of upper level jobs vacant and people leaving but as I’m looking for something entry-mid level I’m hearing crickets.

    10. Smithy*

      I’m seeing this as well.

      I’m in fundraising and six months ago there were a lot of roles across the board so I think the larger wave of people moving up happened and now what’s left are the more junior roles and senior ones that are harder to fill. I also think that generally speaking, fundraising often ends up getting mid level staff to hyper specialize to there’s a point in their career where it’s a lot more attractive to chase hyper niche specialized senior advisor roles with minimal management as opposed to stepping into VP/Chief Development roles.

      On the junior role side – and I have nothing to direct to my field to back this up – I do know that overall fundraising is a field largely dominated by women. And that “women’s” career tracks overall see fewer entrants during times when the job market favors job seekers and then has a rush when the job market is tighter. I know there’s research about this in nursing, but in the nonprofit space – I don’t know how many young job seekers there are where they specifically seek out fundraising work. But rather are struggling to break into the sector and therefore start applying to those jobs.

      1. StarHunter*

        Non-profit here as well. I’ve been looking since early last year for membership/development jobs ranging from manager to coordinator (formally a manager, needed to come out of retirement for reasons). I’ve been ghosted by almost every single org. I see coordinator jobs requiring 5 years of experience, bachelor’s, and paying $15/hr (in CA!). I am also over 60 and I’m guessing I am running up against ageism as well. I would have thought non-profits would love to have someone experienced.

        1. Smithy*

          I know that “nonprofit” as a basket really doesn’t properly describe the larger nonprofit world and who has done better/worse during the pandemic and how that impacts their hiring – so combined with ageism, maybe that’s also a factor?

          I wonder if nonprofits have their own specific breed of ageism where there’s a worry that older candidates will want higher salaries than a job will pay. And of course a salary isn’t listed, so it’s a hiring manager or HR on the other side looking at an extensive resume and then thinking “oh, they must think we can pay so much more than we can”.

      2. Former Fundraiser*

        Oh, that’s interesting! Anecdotally, I (a woman) ended up in fundraising after pretty fruitless job searching in my field post grad-school during the recession. It’s definitely not my preferred job, but it’s a nice skill to have. I’ve gotten fundraising jobs when I’ve wanted to jump ship, and managed to work my way out of fundraising/development roles into things I was more interested in.

        1. madge*

          Are you comfortable sharing basic information about how and to where you transitioned those skills? I’m in donor relations/stewardship and am considering transitioning out, mainly because the pay is abysmal. I love quite a bit of what I do but I also would love to be fairly compensated.

          1. Former Fundraiser*

            Sorry this is late, hopefully you still see it! For me, it helped that I was at smaller organizations that prioritized developing staff members in their interests and skills, and didn’t trap people in the fundraising side of things. Another thing I did was to lean into anything communication or outreach oriented that I got to do, like writing website content, handling social media, writing appeals, etc. For whatever reason, I’ve found that the communication/outreach side of development is seen as more transferable.

            I definitely feel like my salary trajectory was less strong than it could have been at larger organizations, but the programs were less siloed than I’ve seen at bigger orgs and the upper management cared a lot about letting people develop skills and interests.

            Vaguely my path:
            Org. 1: Fundraiser (straight up entry level doing cold calling), which led to
            Org. 2: Development associate > Communications/Development > Communications/Program Associate > Program Director
            Left Org. 2 and took a title downgrade, but higher pay and more stable organization
            Org. 3: Development associate > never got a title upgrade (should have pushed for it) but ended up doing lots of communication and some program development
            Laid off due to COVID/Freelance outreach consulting
            Org. 4 (current): Technician – this place has weird job titles, but I’m doing programmatic stuff alongside communication duties, and it’s a much bigger organization with much better compensation and name recognition. I am planning on applying for a Program Director role in the near future.

        2. RedinSC*

          I would also love to hear how you managed to transition out, I’m VP level in Development and want to get away from fund raising into foundation or Corporate Social Responsibility and I’m just not having any luck getting interest in my resume.

      3. Le Sigh*

        This is an interesting comment re: niche. We’re in the same field and I echo your thoughts around looking at sr advisor type roles — VP or Chief Dev roles are often seen as the natural next step, but I don’t think every good fundraiser in necessarily suited to it. I can see people opting to go for something that comes with less pressure and allows them to focus on a niche/interest area.

        I also think part of it is, depending on your local market, moving up into the VP-type roles can be tricky. Depending on what kind of experience you’ve racked up as a mid-level fundraiser, you might be a bit underqualified for the VP roles but also overqualified for a lot of lateral and jr jobs. Not to say you can’t stretch or do a lateral move, but it can leave you in a middle space.

        Also, if I read one more job listing that goes on and on about creating an equitable workplace but requires you to post your salary requirements in a cover letter and wants a Master’s for a job that I’m sorry, does not remotely require it….

        1. Smithy*

          I’m at a Director level and am beginning to get the shakes when I think about what’s next….because the traditional ladder options seem wonky.

          Personally, and even with working for large organizations, I’ve managed a career without managing more than one person at a time. So roles that include managing larger teams (which are found in the majority of “next step” jobs) seem both daunting and I’m not entirely convinced its what I want.

          The next issue I’ve seen is that for a number of Sr. Director/VP jobs the job description often makes me chuckle because it’s usually includes some wildly rare combination of experiences that I’ve either never or rarely seen. And when I have seen it, it’s almost always because a good chunk of someone’s career was in small or midsized places and then they’re not as experienced with the dollar amounts or breadth of desired contacts.

          I’m not going to touch the Masters point because then this comment will be 2,000 words….sigh…

          All to say, I know a number of people who’ve been essentially making lateral moves but negotiating more money and better titles. Because the true “next step” options don’t seem quite right. And you work under one or two of those new VP’s where you see them struggling, and it’s not exactly inspiring to take that leap yourself.

          1. Le Sigh*

            I relate so much to everything in this comment. I’m feeling all of this so, so much right now and it’s kind of unsettling. I’m trying what you mention — looking for lateral-ish moves into similar or related work that offer something new, whether it be going permanently remote, more money, a focus on my niche, a chance for the kind of growth I’m interested in, etc.

            I really don’t know that I can do the ladder climb. I get queasy reading VP job descriptions that between the lines just scream “burnout!” And when I do find ones I’m qualified for, it’s usually for a smaller org with 30% less pay but also you have to do major gifts, grants, membership, digital, etc. mostly by yourself. At this point, I’d rather find a way to shift out of fundraising than take that on.

    11. HereKittyKitty*

      Same- when I was job searching for 9 months almost all positions were either entry-level for peanuts, or extremely senior positions like directors with nothing in between.

    12. LilPinkSock*

      Yes! Thanks to a company shake-up, about 3/4 of my colleagues suddenly found ourselves looking for new positions. The very senior people and the very junior people found jobs almost immediately, while those of us in the middle really struggled. I feel lucky to have gotten something relatively soon.

    13. aubrey*

      I’m seeing this too – low paid entry level or director level, and barely anything in the middle.

      1. SelinaKyle*

        This is my partners problem, he work made him a lot of promises over the last 8 years and never followed through. He feels stuck as he’s over experienced for his role and similar but can’t jump to the next level as there is so much of a gap. Like others have said some of the lower roles seem to now be made up of a number of merged roles for little pay.

      2. I'm the social scientist you need*

        I’m in the same position: looking for a mid-level role and there are always junior roles, but nothing that fits my experience. Can’t get any company to notice me.

        1. EggyParm*

          Based on your username have you ever considered consulting or working in advertising? I worked in advertising for over a decade and we employed or leveraged social scientists as consultants to help us build interview guides, facilitate focus groups, and back up our projects with social science theory to our clients. Some areas might feel basic to you (making an interview guide probably takes you an hour) but the hourly rate is quite competitive! And most of the social scientists I worked with found it fun to bring those concepts into the business world. Just some food for thought!

          1. I'm the social scientist you need*

            I’d like to do consulting but can’t quite figure out how to get a W-2 job in it.

            1. Dancing Otter*

              Consulting firms employ on W-2 basis, then bill clients. A lot of temp agencies do this, too. You just need to find one in your field.

              1. Hillary*

                Seconding this. The trick is finding a smaller specialty agency that does what you want. The agencies that fill higher-skill roles will have a lot more options. You’re the product they’re selling, they understand your value proposition and if they stay in business they understand what they have to do to retain you. I used to work for one that focused primarily on engineering – their bill rate to customers started at $50/hour and could be $1000+/hour for some specialists. My partner worked for another one that focuses on a specific kind of software development project recovery.

                We chose if we wanted to be on W-2 or 1099 and if we wanted their benefits (health insurance, 401k, pretty comparable to a smaller corporate employer) and we accrued vacation & sick time.
                Direct deposit every week for the previous pay period. When the contract ended we would be eligible for unemployment and they never disputed it. Honestly, it was a pretty great gig.

    14. Cheezmouser*

      Same here, either entry-level or director-level available in my field. I suspect management-level openings are plentiful because companies keep poaching each other’s directors/C-suite people. Meanwhile, entry-level is plentiful because the junior staff ranks got thinned during the pandemic recession and companies now need to hire back. Plus we’re already stacked in middle management, so if you hire highly experienced junior staff, they don’t have much room to grow. Better to hire entry-level people whom you can grow.

    15. Leilah*

      This is my experience as well. It just started about 6 months ago – I used to routinely see roles I was qualified for as a mid-career person. Since about August 95% of roles are now either 10+years upper management experience or entry level, nothing in between.

    16. Lights, Camera, Inaction*

      Ditto. I work in live entertainment and almost everyone employed casually/on contract lost their job at the start of the pandemic. There’s now a flood of entry-level positions rehiring as restrictions ease and the industry builds up steam again, and senior positions where the pandemic has either encouraged senior and executive-level managers to change careers or jump ship after having to slash and burn their companies. Mid-level have all clung to job security and are averse to spitting in the eye of employers who held onto them.

    17. Pool Lounger*

      Same in my field, plus wanting very specialized skills, not willing to train or pay wages that are competitive, and many still have ridiculous applications that require a resume and CL plus filling in the same info on an annoying online form.

    18. DC*

      Yes, exactly this. There’s no middle. I’m starting to get desperate (been #covidunemployed for two years now), but entry level roles pay NOTHING. It’s insulting to entry level folks to pay them that little.

    19. Alternative Person*

      Yep. My company is not filling vacated mid-level positions and refusing to understand that they exist for very good reasons.

      But my whole field is in a race to the bottom where I live, qualified staff are being pushed out by degrees in metro areas and while jobs out in rural areas usually do get some perks, there’s very little up to go from there without an international move or a lot of luck/good timing.

    1. Mm*

      Yep. I’m in a competitive field and keep hearing that jobs are impossible to fill. I responded to a couple of recruiter emails, but every job ended up having a salary at least 20% less than I currently make.

      I think some of it is that employees have accepted that jobs are hard to fill right now and are taking on higher workloads with the hope that someone will get hired eventually. There is very little incentive for these employers to push up the pay range on their open positions when the work is getting done.

  5. Clefairy*

    What I’ve personally seen more of is members of my network reaching out to me about specific opportunities at their companies that they want to refer me to. In the last year or so there have been 4 or 5 opportunities that have “dropped into my lap” thanks to my network, all of which I’ve turned down or not pursued for various reasons.

      1. Clefairy*

        My experience kind of skirts the line between a few different industries…these opportunities have all been in Entertainment/Amusement and Software

      2. Clefairy*

        And yes, I am SO lucky and grateful for my wonderful network! I know I am definitely in a better position that plenty of folks right now. But this definitely has been an anomaly for my experience pre-pandemic, where this might be a once-a-year kind of thing

    2. MicroManagered*

      This is really interesting because normally, if I get a message like this, I assume the job must really suck because they can’t find anyone to fill it. But the climate around that may be changing a little bit.

      1. Pop*

        Oh interesting, I only reach out to my network if I genuinely think it’s a good job that I would feel good about recommending people apply for!

    3. A Part of the Great Resignation*

      I have definitely had this happen to me recently. I had been at my old company for 15+ years and many who just looking at the outside thought I might be an owner or on a path to ownership. I searched very quietly in my industry because word travels quickly and my boss / company owner tended to act rashly. I landed at a great place but when telling people I was leaving I had multiple people tell me I wish I knew you were looking because they were looking for someone for X and I would be great, when there were zero job postings for that company.
      In the 6+ months I have been in my new job I have gotten almost monthly calls asking me about various opportunities from my network. Many are often in sales commission based role that has zero appeal because I want my nights and weekends free. Until we can break the cycle of 24 hour on call responding to customers, I think those jobs are just going to get harder and harder to fill.
      The best though is the old job trying to hire me back (in multiple platforms and through multiple people) despite being told in my exit interview I was never going to qualify for another raise. (They were serious; it had been something like 5 years. I was only eligible for bonuses without a concrete bonus structure.)

      1. The OTHER Other*

        “when telling people I was leaving I had multiple people tell me I wish I knew you were looking because they were looking for someone for X and I would be great, when there were zero job postings for that company.”

        What a strange way they had of looking for someone! I think the better definition might be “hoping a great employee will approach me from out of the blue”.

  6. Glomarization, Esq.*

    One theory I’ve seen is that businesses are inflating their numbers of unfilled jobs so that they can receive Build Back Better relief funds.

    1. Kaboom22*

      Yes. The amount of companies screaming “No OnE wAnTs To WoRk AnYmOrE” combined with the amount of ppl I hear saying they’re applying all over and not getting call backs, leads me to believe that companies are advertising bc they had to to be eligible for PPP loans, but have decided they’d rather privately pocket the difference and publicly complain to save face.

      1. Spearmint*

        Eh, I’m skeptical of this. The vast majority of PPP loans were distributed by early-summer of last year.

        I suspect the real disconnect is that some industries have a worker shortage while others are still really competitive.

        1. FrivYeti*

          My understanding is that, for those doing this, it’s not about distribution, it’s about being able to avoid paying the loans back.

          Essentially, if the loans are used on certain types of payroll, they don’t have to be repaid. And if the corporation has documentation to show that they *want* to have that job, but it’s been recently vacated and they can’t find a replacement, they don’t have to pay back the loan and they also don’t have to hire someone to fill it. So some corporations took PPP loans intended for staffing, laid off those staff anyway (or even faked their existence in the first place, in some cases), kept the money, and are now ‘trying’ to fill the spots, but not very hard because they don’t actually want to pay staff for them.

          This is definitely a thing that’s happened; it is unclear whether it’s happening in large enough numbers to reflect the current disparity between the number of supposedly open jobs and people’s experiences. But it’s not too far-fetched.

          1. Anne of Green Tables*

            Anecdotal, but a friend of mine and many of her coworkers were laid off right after their company got its PPP loan. Rehiring or new hiring didn’t happen, but the company got another whopping second-round PPP loan. Almost $1M in free money for a company that was terrible to work for, but nevertheless was many people’s sole source of income. I really wonder what the books look like on that one.

            1. Ann, You Beautiful Spinster*

              I got furloughed by a company that promised to bring everyone back because we were “family,” and then they laid us all off and converted a bunch of contractor positions to meet payroll numbers and avoid paying back the loans.

          2. Ashley*

            Yes, it’s about documentation for loan forgiveness. The company I work for got PPP loans from both rounds, and I helped with the documentation needed to get the loans forgiven. If the company is honest, the documentation isn’t difficult, just standard-government-form tedious.

      2. Autumnheart*

        What’s really infuriating is that companies sure weren’t complaining about “nobody wanting to work” when they laid off millions of people in 2020. To the point where the government paid them billions of dollars to not do that, although plenty of them did anyway. But now that people don’t want those shitty jobs back? Suddenly it’s a problem.

        1. Anonymous4*

          “People don’t want to work a crappy job with constantly varying hours for very little money — they’re just LAZY!”

          I always want to put the people who say that into that sort of job and let them find out first-hand why those jobs are open and why the managers are having to rethink their approach to their employees’ scheduling and pay.

          1. IT Manager*

            Yeah I went to a fast food restaurant this weekend that was clearly trying to mollify customers with a sign that said “we’re so sorry for the slow service, but so many people don’t want to work right now” and it was infuriating.

            They don’t want to work for low wages, uncertain schedules, and plague-carrying maskless screaming customers? Shocker.

            Just charge me a buck more for my burger and pay people a living wage.

          2. MiloSpiral*

            I always want to put the people who say that into that sort of job and let them find out first-hand why those jobs are open and why the managers are having to rethink their approach to their employees’ scheduling and pay.

            This sort of happened at my old company—most of the company was laid off in March 2020, but before that, there was a significant disconnect between what C-suite people thought people should be able to do, with poorly designed systems, for very little pay, and what those entry-level jobs were like day-to-day. By August 2020 they had laid off everyone BUT the C-suite, so everyone had to pitch in everywhere. After that, the C-suite changed their tune considerably.

            The good news is that they seem to be acting on that experience: according to a friend who was hired back recently, they are paying much more competitive salaries, and are fostering a better culture of work-life balance. I was very glad to hear it.

        2. Anonymous4*

          Addendum: The “just-in-time” scheduling may be The Greatest Thing Ever for maximizing profits, but it just shreds the employees. They never know when they’re going to be called in, they never know from week to week how many hours they’ll work or how much money they’ll make — and for people with kids? God love ’em, how can they find childcare on that kind of crazy schedule?

    2. Leliana*

      This is my theory as well. I’ve applied to a handful of jobs that, halfway through the interview process, were suddenly closed for no reason/they decided not to hire anyone. A little sus.

    3. a tester, not a developer*

      In my part of the world (not the US) one of the theories is that employers are using “we just can’t get workers” to reduce customer pushback when they reduce the opening hours for the business (i.e. places that were open 24/7 now closing at 8 or 10 because “they just can’t get staff”).

      1. kathy*

        in my part of the world (also not the US) I think staffing shortages today are largely caused by the number of people off work at any given time due to COVID symptoms or positive tests. It’s forcing the closure of libraries, restaurants, and any elective or non-emergency medical procedure at a hospital.

        1. lolly pop*

          In my area the public libraries double as homeless shelters so they stay open and force library staff to be exposed to angry, violent, mask-refusers. For shitty shitty wages.

          1. pancakes*

            It seems like the problem here is more that the library allows people to go mask-free than that it allows homeless people in. And the low pay, of course.

    4. Ally McBeal*

      I’ve seen that theory too, or a variation where they’re not inflating their numbers but posting jobs and then ghosting on interviewees. Or, like with retail/service jobs, they’ll get all the way to offer or onboarding stage and say “well you’re fine with only working 30 hours a week, right?” because they’re desperate for wage slaves and not actual employees who need benefits and scheduling stability. Same motivation though.

    5. Rolling eyes*

      I’m a recruiting manager and have 10% of my company’s headcount as open roles. I wish I was inflating the number of openings! I’d be less stressed!

      1. Hydrangea McDuff*

        Do you feel like your company is advertising competitively? What do you hear from applicants about their hesitancies?

  7. RT*

    It was pretty easy for me to land a new role – in fact the company that I eventually chose to work with took 2 weeks to go through 4 interviews and make a decision. Netted me a significant pay raise and the role is 100% remote.

    I probably spent 3 months lazily looking for a new job – most of my interviews came from recruiters contacting me via LinkedIn though. It was pretty rare for me to get contacted when I applied to a position.

    My position is a non-dev role with a software firm that does Fintech which is my specialty.

    1. Hogwash*

      Coming from a big bank, I found it to be relatively easy to get a job at a fintech. The industry seems to be desperate for talent in my area (I’m remote but the job is based in a major Midwestern city).

      1. Web Crawler*

        I’m also in fintech and that seems true in my experience too. (I’m also remote with a company out of the midwest.)

      2. WonderMint*

        Fintech worker here, we’re hiring like mad in 2022. The caveat is little-to-no entry-level positions. Looking for talent, not looking to train.

        1. RT*

          I’ve had the same problem training up entry level workers – it’s really tough. It takes upwards to 6 months to get familiar with basic fintech concepts and if the person isn’t able to take that and run with it, we’re pretty much dead in the water with that person.

          We’ve mostly cheated the system and started snagging business analysts from other fields that seem especially technically capable and teaching them fintech concepts instead – still a little hit or miss but not as bad as entry level.

        2. Clemgo3165*

          How about looking for experience, not looking to train. One can still be talented, just not trained for the position.

      3. No Longer Gig-less Data Analyst*

        Also in Fintech and can concur. We have way more positions than qualified/experienced people to fill them.

        The company has tried hiring new grads with little to no experience and the learning curve is just way to high. The volume of work is too great to spend 6 months to a year getting an individual analyst up to speed. It doesn’t help that our training sucks and we really need someone who can hit the ground running.

        1. Hogwash*

          We’re hiring at all levels- both engineers and non-engineers. One thing that stuck out to me was that they were wanting to a couple new grads (with more oversight) or one mid-level person for a particular project depending on the applicant pool. I don’t know what that means but it seems like they’re having to be more flexible.

    2. LinuxSystemsGuy*

      I think pretty much all higher-end IT/dev stuff is almost always easy to find jobs in. I do systems engineering/dev ops stuff for various types of HPC type systems. Basically these days I support clusters that do data analysis of various types and/or object based storage clusters, though I also have experience supporting development pipelines as well. Since about 2008 I have never been jobless for more than a couple of weeks.

      Similarly, when hiring, it’s almost always hard/bordering on impossible to find qualified people. Scientific institutions, research heavy industries like biotech and robotics, and startups are always looking for Unix/Linux heavy systems people, though they call them all sorts of things. Plus I live near Boston, which is heavy in all those industries.

      It’s hard to say this 100% since I am personally a white male, but I don’t even see much racism or sexism these day in this niche. It’s hard enough to find people with the skills we need. No one cares about much of anything else.

      1. Goldenrod*

        I’m in higher ed too (but as a female EA) and I saw a HUGE difference this go-round. My new job was a 10% raise and they were DESPERATE to hire me….a big difference from the last time I looked.

        Another female EA pal of mine also got the red-carpet treatment when she applied….and a huge 20% increase in salary!

        So I am definitely feeling a difference….And LOVING IT.

        2. lolly pop*

          Definitely not the case for my higher ed employer. They still offer peanuts for double workloads for classified staff but roll out red carpets for director/VP/dean positions.

        3. AcademiaNut*

          I think the comment above was talking about higher-END IT stuff, rather than higher-ED.

          High performance computing is certainly used by some higher-ed fields. There’s a tendency to get more junior people who train up in complex *nix based cluster computing, machine learning and the like and then go off to industry for a much, much higher salary. Plus the occasional oddball who loves the academic environment too much to leave.

      2. OT not IT*

        Maybe someone can help me give my son some direction on how to look for a job in IT while living in Japan. He has about 5 years help desk and networking experience when he worked at a hospital and NASA in the US before moving to Japan. He’s learning Japanese but not fluent enough to work locally, so he’s hoping to find something he can do remotely. Any suggestions I could pass along would be greatly appreciated!

        1. RT*

          Have your son broaden his search to business analyst/support analyst/systems analyst roles. There is a ton of overlap there. He will need technical ability to troubleshoot issues, critical thinking skills and good writing skills to write up requirements or client requests. Hope that helps.

      3. Me!*

        But y’all don’t need any admins or PCs, apparently, or else they get paid enough that they never leave? I’ve been trying and trying and trying to get over there. I got so, so close with a science-adjacent company, but the hiring manager had an emergency and they picked someone else (probably local) and I was heartbroken. :'{

        1. Zweisatz*

          Of you want to get into IT and are reasonably tech-literate/savvy, I can only recommend looking into customer support positions, E. g. for software that the company develops itself (smaller scope).
          with support it can be tough to find the sweet spot between technical enough that you are treated well but not so technical that you’re out of your depth, but non-technical customer support can be a gateway to technical customer support.

          1. just a non tech girl in a techie world*

            That describes my role perfectly! I am a non tech person working for a tech company, and I train non tech people on our specific tech platform. I have a lot of prior experience working in the field my tech company focuses on (think health startup) which made the transition relatively smooth. I’d suggest searching health tech or customer support tech on linked in jobs for that type of role.

    3. The Starsong Princess*

      We’re finding incredibly difficult to fill technical and highly skilled roles. Generally, we offer slightly below market but with excellent flexibility, work environment, vacations/ benefits and bonus eligibility. Right now, that’s not good enough and we have been getting about one acceptance to five offers where it used to be one to one. It’s obvious that the market rate for these people has increased in the last year so we have had to increase offers for those we want. One thing I think is being watched closely is these people leaving because they can get more elsewhere. I am predicting market adjustment increases for some in these roles (although I have no knowledge of that happening – that’s just a guess.)

      For lower skilled and entry level roles, things haven’t changed that much. Yes, candidates have been negotiating more sharply but most offers are being accepted as they always were. We recently added a bunch of these roles and were able to fill them with good people.

      1. Alix J*

        This is kind of like what I saw at my prior employer. I work in tech but not at one of the big famous companies, and I feel like it took them way too long (maybe a year?) to process that this pay increase was here to stay. We’d ask why we hadn’t been able to hire this candidate we liked, or that one, or why the other role was still unfilled, and they kept saying their salary demands were too high.

        In an all-hands meeting one of our VPs responded to a question about our trouble hiring with “It’s a very difficult market right now, people just want more money these days than we’re willing to pay.” Picture my jaw falling open like, you understand you are literally telling all of us we are paid below current market rates, right?

        Anyway, a while after I left (as part of a long string of departures) they announced a pay adjustment across the board, raises between 8-15% for most roles. It probably would have matched what I got at my new job, but my new job doesn’t make me work evenings and weekends so I still feel like a winner. And I’m glad they finally got the message!

        1. MiloSpiral*

          Good for you! Congrats on finding something better, and hopefully at a company that already understands the value of its workers. It’s great that your old company has made some changes, but culture takes a lot longer to shift. Best of luck to them with that change but there’s no sense waiting around for it.

          I am actively job-searching. My manager (ED of a tiny nonprofit) knows that she doesn’t offer enough to retain employees, but somehow thinks that she’s the one suffering most. About a month ago she said something to me like, “Believe me, no one understands better than I do how much it sucks that we can’t pay more or offer benefits.”

          No one? Really? No one else?

    4. TheLinguistManager*

      I am not in fintech, but I am in cybersecurity/privacy and we are hoping to hire a ton of people for my dev team this year, to the point where I expect my (already sizable) department to double. Lots of senior positions but we are also trying to fill out the junior ranks and invest in our staff.

      The market we’re seeing is filled with job seekers and jobs and extremely competitive on both sides. Lots of people who come to us have offers already or are expecting them soon, and the comp expectations are way higher. I now know what it’s like to be an old fuddy-duddy, as I recently offered a new college grad a salary 60% higher than my first job out of college had 14 years ago.

      I have never seen anything like this job market. However, I am also grounded by my partner, who graduated from law school and passed the bar last year, and is on month 6 of her job search. She’s had applications fall into black holes, been ghosted by recruiters, the whole nine yards. Next week she has her very first interview of the search. The kicker is that most of her classmates are experiencing the same thing. It’s either “entry level, requires 5 years of experience” or only senior positions. I had my own 7-month job search in 2020, so I’m hoping she doesn’t break my record.

  8. Jake*

    We’re struggling to find good applicants. Enough so that we are cold calling some people in the area that work for competitors that we know are good fits and trying to get them to come to our side. I haven’t seen us ever do that before, as we can usually get great candidates just by sitting back and letting them come to us.

    1. Jake*

      As an aside, we are having no issues finding entry level folks. Its the 5-10 year folks that we can’t find. It’s not a money thing, we advertised on our normal spots and received 0 qualified applications.

        1. The New Wanderer*

          That could definitely be true in my niche field – my previous company had lots of applicants for entry level (and some were even qualified!), but very few applicants at all in the mid to senior range. Those latter positions were open for most of 2021, which is really unusual considering those jobs were previously rare and highly coveted. However these days, with our type of skills and 5-10 years’ experience you can pivot to a good number of very highly paid adjacent fields, which all have good jobs posted too.

        1. Pants*

          This is huge. I’m suspect of companies that don’t include salary bands. I feel like they’re hiding what they know to be a low salary.

          1. FridayFriyay*

            Same. And with so many jobs now posting salaries/salary ranges in the ads, it doesn’t make sense to sink time and energy into those that don’t due to the likelihood that if they paid competitively they’d want to advertise it.

            1. Fran Fine*

              My company really needs to start posting salary ranges in the ads. I hear so many complaints from hiring managers that they can’t find qualified candidates, and I truly think the lack of salary range is part of it (and we actually pay market rate for every role and have excellent benefits, which they also don’t advertise – it’s bizarre).

              1. Pants*

                I’ve got over 20 years of experience on my resume. I stopped responding to ads that don’t list a salary band. 99% of the time, I found those jobs were at least $5 to $10k lower than they should have been. If your hiring managers are looking for people with my kind of experience, please feel free to let them know they’re being overlooked automatically by qualified candidates.

      3. HolidayAmoeba*

        I am seeing similar issues. We can fill entry level jobs. Although the pool for some of those is weirdly more shallow than what we had before. But people with some experience are making major moves because that’s where the real market is. Myself included. About to start a new job.

        1. Jake*

          We hire a lot of interns, since we are in a college town, so we always have a strong pool of entry level candidates, luckily.

      4. Marny*

        Do your ads reflect whether your company has good COVID safety protocols and/or WFH options? Do your ads include salary?

        2. Jake*

          yes on the salary, no on everything else. These are not WFH positions, for us or any of our competitors.

      5. MusicWithRocksIn*

        We are desperately looking for a strong sales person – but need a very engineering strong knowledge base, and the pickings are non-existent. We are paying well – but being good at outside sales is almost something you are born with, and those people have gotten snatched up, and the industry is strong in these parts but niche.

      6. Aquawoman*

        It’s fascinating that in a thread above, people looking for midlevel positions are saying the opposite. I’m so curious about the disconnect.

        1. Jake*

          My experience is one industry in one location. Plus it is an industry that typically struggles to keep people beyond the 5 year mark in the first place. We’ve always had more luck hiring entry level folks and developing them into mid level folks, but right now we have an immediate need after 3 people decided to move out of state within a month.

      7. Mimi*

        I wonder if the shortage of 5-10 year folks (in some industries) is because of timing of recessions– if the people who graduated 5-15 years ago have less relevant experience than the comparable group 10 or 20 years ago, because it was so hard to get entry-level jobs in some fields during the Great Recession. Almost none of my peers got work in their field right away, and I still know people working kind of meh jobs (or weird niche ones) in industries they don’t care that much about, because that was what they could get and they’re still scarred from job searching fresh out of school.

        1. irianamistifi*

          This is absolutely true for my peers. We graduated in ’07 and I only have 2 friends from college who have jobs in their studied field. A lot of my friends, when they finally found jobs, clung to them for dear life and never really got the salary/raises/promotions that people in the years before us did.

          A lot of us have been consistently underemployed and took jobs that didn’t really mesh with our dreams/studies because that’s what was available.

          1. Chirpy*

            This, I did get a job in my minor right out of college, but lost it at the height of the recession and never was able to get back into the field (or the main field I studied for). It’s now been a good 10+ years and even if I did manage to find one of these jobs, I’d still be entry level instead of midlevel like I should be at this age.

        2. Cheezmouser*

          I’m seeing this in my field too. There just weren’t a lot of entry-level jobs available during the Great Recession, which meant fewer people getting their foot in the door 5-10 years ago. Plus automation and global outsourcing eliminated many of the more repetitive-but-important tasks that helped build skills in junior staff. So now we’re left with jobs consisting primarily of higher-level, more complex tasks that can’t be automated and that require extensive experience to handle, but a smaller pool of experienced candidates.

        3. Overeducated*

          Oof, maybe. I am on the older end of that range and feel like I’m at least 5 years behind in my career, maybe more, thanks to the mess that was my early to mid-20s. Hard to know how much of that is normal finding your footing and how much was recession-based but my choices definitely felt narrow.

        4. Formerly Prof, now Non-Prof*

          I was going to suggest the same! I graduated with a BA in ’09, so… I worked retail for a year and then went to grad school. This was what virtually all of my peers did, too. I didn’t start my “professional” experience for a few more years, when I was in my late 20s (later than most of my peers, actually, because I got a PhD) and had left academia. While I’ve been able to explain in some job settings why the work I did in academia qualifies as work experience, technically I’ve only been out of grad school for 6ish years. I’m management-level now and am gently searching for a lateral move or director-level position. Even though I’m often overqualified in terms of experiences, training, skills, and education, I haven’t worked for 10+ years so I often don’t meet the threshold. I mean, I apply to those jobs anyway (because I’ve listened to the advice here!), but I often get screened out.

        5. Jake*

          I’m sure its true for some industries. My industry in particular is pretty famous for people not making it longer than 5 years, so this has been a problem for years, its just exacerbated by the current situation.

          1. Asae*

            Already elevated market? Sir you are aware that the vast majority of market rates have not been keeping up with increases in either production or inflation for quite a few years right? Would you be willing to say what the general pay range for this mid level position is?

      9. Tiffany Aching*

        We are also having this issue, regardless of whether salaries are posted or not, and we pay roughly market median for most positions. We have had to fail several searches for lack of candidates who meet even the minimum qualifications, or having no applicants at all.

        1. DANGER: Gumption Ahead*

          I wonder if part of what is happening is that companies offering market median to people already working in the field and being paid market median aren’t alluring enough to switch for because you lose any benefits from seniority (e.g. longer leave, already getting 401(k) match) and stability isn’t to be sniffed at given that we have no idea what might be coming. I’m betting jobs have to be better than median to entice already settled folks to move in many fields

          1. MusicWithRocksIn*

            This is very true. Everyplace I’ve worked has allotted vacation time by time spent at the company – so you have to work there for 5+ years to get more than two weeks. I was offered one week when I started, and negotiated up to two, and am really at a place in life where there is no way I’m taking a job again for less than three (which I have never had). I am so tired of the clock on ‘one day magic extra vacation time’ being re-set in a field that tends to do dramatic lay offs every few years.

            1. DrRat*

              Yeah, as I noted earlier, I think my company’s generous PTO does make a difference in attracting people. You might be pretty senior where you are and have worked up to 2-3 weeks of PTO, but we START people with 19 days PTO and 8 holidays, which I have literally never seen anywhere else. (Also if you leave the company and come back later, you keep your previous seniority in terms of PTO.)

              1. WonkyStitch*

                I had 4 years in my previous job and was still only at 1 week PTO a year (!) and switched to my new company, which was a lateral move salary-wise but started me on day one with 40 hours of PTO. The better and cheaper benefits, exclusively remote without having to refresh a reasonable accommodation every 6 months, company match on 401k up to 8%, stock plan, and internal movement opportunities were all worth it.

      10. The Dogman*

        Ahh over a decade of underpaying (not your company specifically, more the nature of Capitalism generally) and keeping people desperate for jobs is your problem I think.

        A lot the 10 years types you are after never developed those skills, never became experienced, instead the kleptocrat class set up the corporations (again generally, not all) to underpay and not develop the few workers who found jobs in their area of expertise. And many more graduates never got into the industries they wanted, they took what jobs they could get and I doubt many were up for risking unemployment in the last ten years, so a lot of industries were suffering from a shortfall of upskilled and experienced workers even before the pandemic.

        A good friend of mine is pretty senior in one of the UK’s biggest banks, and she has been having incredible difficulty getting exactly the same people you are looking for.

        She has a 41 years of experience person retiring this week. She has been trying to get 3 roles to replace the lady in question, since that lady was super fast and experienced. The bank are willing to pay for one person at her rate if they have 30 years of experience, but my friend says that person likely does not exist, and if they do will want a lot more than what they got away with paying the retiring lady too. She is already 3 staff down on the numbers she is supposed to have, but no one wants to take the roles that are open as the pay is not high enough to entice the people who have the required experience.

        She says that her bank has been as bad as the competition at not developing workers since poaching is cheaper… but the result is what you are seeing, coupled with the recession damaged workers, a dearth of people willing or able to take these roles.

        Then you get inflation of wages for those roles as companies get desperate, and this makes those companies less willing to invest in developing people in future as the company will be worried the workers will jump ship for better pay… which they will… so the end result is an ever increasing pay for key roles, and an ever decreasing number of people qualified for that role.

        On a personal note dog training dried up totally during the pandemic, so (since I was not elaigable to claim benefits or get any business support) I applied to a number of driving jobs, about 40. All to companies who said they were desperate for drivers. Including the NHS…

        I got zero responses, not even a “thanks but no.” from any of them, I hold a full clean UK driving license, with a number of advanced driving qualifications, I have no criminal record, no driving endorsements, and I was happy to work unsociable hours.

        Nothing in response. During a pandemic that called for extra deliveries nationwide.

        So personally I have little sympathy for corporations generally, they are reaping what they sowed, and some innocent ones will be caught up by this, but that is the nature of Capitalism really.

        1. JUSTJACKNOW*

          I agree that employers refuse to develop current workers. And now are expecting workers to train themselves via CBT and be experts in subjects that take years to be come one.

    2. Quinalla*

      Yes, we are having issues getting any applicants for mid-level or senior-level positions. I have advised and will continue to advise that while we keep looking for good mid/senior level folks, we should also ramp up internal training/promotions as we actually have a lot of internal talent that is ready or near ready to move up and bring on more entry level applicants as those are easier to get right out of college or folks that graduated in the last year or two that had no luck finding a job yet. We also continue to have co-ops and are often able to hire those folks who are ready to run on their first day as a salaried employee.

      We have also started actively looking for people anywhere in the country as a lot of us are still working 100% remotely. There are tax implications if we hire someone who lives outside of the current 5 states we have people in, but it is worth it for us if we get someone good with experience.

      The recruiters have been a little less aggressive lately in contacting me on linkedin, but are still there, more like 1 per week vs. 3-4 per week previously.

      I work in design for construction and most contractors I know are hurting for folks, but that problem has been ongoing for years, COVID just made it worse.

      There definitely still is a problem of some companies wanting to pay nothing, not offer any flexibility, and expect people to be butts in seats for no good reason and potential employees saying no thanks. Companies that haven’t adjusted since COVID started in their expectations are not going to do well right now in hiring.

      1. The Dogman*

        “I have advised and will continue to advise that while we keep looking for good mid/senior level folks, we should also ramp up internal training/promotions as we actually have a lot of internal talent that is ready or near ready to move up and bring on more entry level applicants as those are easier to get right out of college or folks that graduated in the last year or two that had no luck finding a job yet.”

        I suspect your bosses, while trying to poach talent from elsewhere, will not want to pay for training talented people who will jump ship at the first decent offer over what your bosses pay.

        And they will not understand even if you explain it in simple terms to them. They won’t want to understand it.

        Corporations did this to themselves, and it has been at least a couple of decades in the making, but much worse since the 2008/9 crash.

        The short termist thinking (thanks business schools! thanks loads…) that created this problem cannot fix it, they are incapable (capitalists in general that is) of looking at the longterm requirements for their own corporations, let alone their industry at large or society in general.

        1. A Part of the Great Resignation*

          I am amazed how many place refuse to train people because ‘we are to busy’ or Fergus already handles that. It is extremely short sighted and I think so many people are starting to realize only have one person that can perform certain functions is hugely problematic. My old company learned that lesson the hard way when they failed to provide the help I need to manage my workload. The amount of topics I had to leave direction on was long and they probably are still missing things that I just took care of because nobody else would and nobody else could be bothered to learn. When people have to work from a hospital bed because there is no one else to do some functions, it is time to find a new job.

    3. Little My*

      Yep, our org is also low in candidates for a role that I saw at least 50 applicants for when I worked at a different org in 2019.

    4. sofar*

      Yes, on the cold-calling. I’m getting reached out to directly more — clearly from companies who just had someone quit and the need to poach someone YESTERDAY. Also, our company is doing a lot more poaching attempts (direct contact to candidates with the right skill sets) to fill positions as we hemorrhage employees.

      The biggest reason I’m not jumping ship is that these companies are offering laughably pathetic vacation/time off policies and saying (when I ask) that “all our new employees start out with two weeks the first year, that’s our policy, and we can’t adjust that. But we can go up on salary.” I’m lucky to be in the position where I’m well enough paid, and I’m not about to jump ship to go somewhere that will give me a measly 2 weeks off when I’ve got 15 years of experience in my field.

      I always hate the first year at a new job where I have to prove myself and figure out the new norms. Without the ability to take time off as needed, I’d drown. I generally take 15-20 combined vacation/sick days per year, which I think is reasonable. If a company thinks 10 days total is A-OK, that indicates a certain “out of touch-ness” that I don’t want to deal with.

    5. Lily Rowan*

      Yeah, I work at a very attractive employer, and recently got one viable candidate for an early-career position and have heard the same from colleagues in other areas trying to hire at the same level.

    6. Cheezmouser*

      I wonder if this is impacting female-dominated fields more than male-dominated fields, given the continuing issues with childcare availability. I have one friend who dropped out of the workforce during the pandemic due to daycares closing. She still can’t go back because she’s pregnant now and doesn’t want to send the toddler to daycare and risk having COVID brought back home. I’m working 100% remote but I’ve had to watch my kids when schools closed or there’s a COVID exposure and they had to quarantine for 10 days. It was 10 days of hell, because I was in back-to-back meetings and shouldering an enormous amount of work while my kids ran amok. If we didn’t need the benefits, I might’ve considered quitting.

  9. CatCat*

    My spouse was laid off at the beginning of March 2021. Since then, he’s put in lots of applications, had a handful of interviews, received no offers, and run out of unemployment benefits. The “job-seekers market” feels like a myth to him. I’ve encouraged him to take the dates he went to college off his resume to avoid age discrimination.

    2. Panda*

      My husband had the same thing. He was laid off in January 2021. He had a few interviews. He even applied for stuff far below his career and salary like auto parts drivers, etc. and no calls for those. The few he did talk to wanted to pay peanuts. He finally got a job just before Christmas he didn’t even apply for. He was referred because he knew the VP and they were desperate to hire someone who knew the work from his old job (this company is a vendor for the old job that my husband directly worked with before layoff).

      I am not so certain the job market is as rosy as the press says.

    3. Midwestern Weegie*

      My husband was laid off in June 2021 (two months before we had our third child, whee….). He’s in the same boat of lots of applications, a few interviews, zero offers and now zero unemployment benefits. So he’s staying home with our kids while I’m supporting a family of 5 on a low-end-of-average salary.

      Good times.

      1. Jaxgma*

        My husband was laid off in Dec 2019 and it took him almost a year and a half to find another job – which ended up being with his previous company. He’s in financial services (not tech). Apparently folks in their late 50’s with 30 years of experience at the same company aren’t seen as a good investment. He applied to a ton of places, had a number of interviews, even made it to “finalist” a few times. His previous company is a bit of a niche in financial services, and other companies didn’t seem to believe that his skills would carry over – they wanted experience in very specific products. His previous company hired him back into a department he’d worked in 12 years earlier, at a lower level and thus a lower salary than he’d been making when he was laid off. His boss was thrilled to get him since he could hit the ground running, and gave him the very top of the salary range for the position, but it was still a 25% pay cut.

        1. The Dogman*

          I really hate capitalists… they ruin capitalism for everyone…

          So sorry you are all going through this, that sucks for your husband and by proxy you too!

    5. Leilah*

      My roommate has been looking for work for almost 18 months — EVERYWHERE is hiring desperately around me, but she has only gotten two call-backs. One ghosted her after she passed her drug test (weird) and one ghosted her after the interview. Everything else was crickets. I’ve helped her with her resume, she is working part time at the same job for 18 months now but they can’t offer full time and she wants full time work. I don’t understand why everyone is ghosting her (she is trans so we wonder if that has to do with it?).

    6. Swift*

      I’m in a similar boat. Its been hard to even get a call back. Most of the urgently hiring jobs around me is customer service, which I am so burned out on that I doubt I could do a good job. But I’ve applied for a bunch of in person jobs, mostly admin assistant, and haven’t even heard back.

      It feels like it’s an employee’s job market, but not for all employees.

    7. Snarkitect*

      My spouse was laid off August 2021, and same thing. Many applications, a couple of interviews but nothing has panned out yet. And very few postings in December due the holidays, presumably.

    8. Sitting Duck*

      I left my previous job I’m Sept 2019 because I was moving, and despite the fact the I was working remotely(and had been for 2.5 years at that point) they didn’t want me to work from my new state.(This company has employees all over the country….) Whatever.
      I immediately started looking for new remote work and am still looking 2+ years later. I’ve done hundreds of applications, had a couple interviews, got one offer and accepted and then the work ‘dried up’ and here I am still applying.
      I’m open to full or part-time, contract, even temporary at this point. The pandemic pushed more companies to remote and I hoped it would help my chances….and then we hear about the shortage of workers….none of this has helped me though. I have a master’s degree and 8+ years of experience in my field.
      I’m now building side hustles and hoping one of them takes off so I can pay myself, because nothing else is working.

  10. OlderGrad*

    I graduated with my Bachelors December 10th and literally began a new career that same day. My job search was easy, extremely fast, and unstressful. And my resume wasn’t perfect, either. So my experience was yes, it’s a great job market for seekers right now.

    1. Ali + Nino*

      It’s great to hear about new grads having success out there. Congrats! I’m curious – what is your industry?

    2. WomEngineer*

      COVID has made LinkedIn and virtual networking a vital skill for job seekers. It’s much easier to connect with others who are hiring or who can share career advice. Pretty much all of my networking in the past year was online through extracurriculars and professional organizations. I think it’s easier now than it was 6 months ago, as there’s (seemingly) less uncertainty regarding how to operate during COVID. Or at least I’ve seen more opportunities on LinkedIn.

      I’m also a new grad in engineering, targeting roles in aerospace, additive manufacturing, and consumer products. There are a lot of places in STEM that are hiring, but from a candidate’s perspective, it’s a mixed bag in terms of difficulty. Some of my classmates converted from past internships, whereas others (like myself) didn’t get an offer until a few months after graduation. As a woman, it felt like luck, but in reality, I know it’s based on past work experience (especially for technical roles) and nailing the interview. I’m grateful for the few interviewers that were able to provide feedback after my rejections.

      The biggest frustration was not hearing back at all from 2/3 of my applications. Also, a some did not notify you if you were rejected or had no way for candidates to monitor their status. One was confusing to navigate, and it was not obvious that candidates could check their status.

      On another note, I wish large organizations (with 100+ openings) let you filter postings by education requirements and years of experience (not just location and department), especially if they don’t refer to levels in the job title.

      I learned that research or other long-term projects really make a difference if you’re targeting a specific technical area. While you may have transferable skills from other work, but there’s another candidate with highly relevant experience, they’ll stand out more.

      I’m not as bothered by not knowing the salary upfront, but I expect it to be close to my school’s median. I also expect health/retirement benefits, especially if you have a college degree.

  11. Former Gifted Kid*

    I recently got a new job! I had been casually looking for about a year and a half. I can’t say that I got any more interviews now that I did earlier in my job search. In my industry, I think pay is a big reason there is so much churn right now. I work in the non-profit sector. Some organizations in my industry have taken a hard look at pay disparity and what a living wage is and have majorly upped pay and some haven’t. My new job isn’t at much of a higher level than my new job and in the same industry but pays 50% more.

    At the job I am leaving, we’ve had about a third of the staff leave in the past three months. They’ve been able to hire two people, but are really struggling to fill other roles, mostly because of the low pay. There is a development job that has been open for months and I think they’ve gotten maybe three applicants, all of whom are massively unqualified. The pay they are offering is half of what the market rate for that job is. They are trying to fill my job quickly, but I think they are going to have a really hard time finding someone. I told them this. Others who have left told them this. But the pay advertised is still laughably low.

    1. Ori*

      Yes. I’m finding that some jobs simply aren’t paying commensurate with the level of work they’re asking for.

    2. Former Gifted Kid*

      And if anyone is interested in an anecdote from the agriculture sector, my sister owns an ag business and has had to hire recently. As I mentioned in a post yesterday, all the farms in my area, including my sister’s, employ a mix of undocumented and documented workers. For undocumented workers, there are recruiters, although I don’t think they would call themselves that. My sister was looking for extra help so contacted the local recruiter. From talking to him, it seems like there are more farm jobs than there are workers. The guy my sister wanted to hire had three competing offers. He ended up taking the job with my sister, mostly because my sister’s farm had the best working conditions.

      1. Richard Hershberger*

        “For undocumented workers, there are recruiters, although I don’t think they would call themselves that.”

        Coyotes?

        1. Former Gifted Kid*

          No, coyotes isn’t the right word either. From what I understand coyotes get people across the border, they don’t help people find jobs. The guys I am talking about don’t just work with new immigrants, but workers that have been in the country for years. They are usually personable older guys who are well respected in the community. Also, they usually have their own day job. They get a small finder’s fee from the farm hiring, but they don’t get paid by the workers.

          1. Autumnheart*

            Human traffickers? Seems like that would fit. Also pretty callous to talk about exploiting undocumented workers like that’s just normal. Especially in a thread about exploiting workers.

            1. LinuxSystemsGuy*

              I didn’t get the impression there was exploitation involved. There’s ethics questions in general around hiring undocumented workers of course, but based on what I read yesterday and today, it sounds like her sister treats them with respect and has pay equity.

            2. IndyDem*

              I think you and I have a large degree of difference in the definition of human trafficking. Some who helps undocumented people find jobs, even for a fee, isn’t human trafficking, even if it could be shady.

            3. Former Gifted Kid*

              Not all employment of undocumented workers is exploitative. A lot of it is, for sure. I don’t want to downplay that. That being said, the undocumented farm laborers in my area are not being human trafficked. Most of them flew to the US and then overstayed their visas. They weren’t secreted across the border in the back of a truck. I would say the average pay for for laborers around here is ~$600 a week plus housing. If you think about how much the average person pays for rent or a mortgage, that’s a lot better pay than most Americans.

              The point of the “recruiters” I am talking about is to help make sure workers aren’t getting exploited. If a guy is being treatedly poorly on one farm, he can go to the recruiter who will find him another farm to work at. Also, if a farm gets a reputation for poor working conditions, the recruiter will stop connecting them with labor.

              Is it a great system? Nope! There are still tons of problems. The area I am in, most of the farms are small farms in a fairly niche area of agriculture. What happens on large factory farms is not at all similar. Even in my area where undocumented workers are treated fairly well, they don’t pay taxed and aren’t eligible for unemployment or workers comp or disability. They don’t get health insurance or PTO, but that is true of documented farm laborers as well.

              Also, farmers using undocumented workers is normal! That doesn’t mean its right, but our agriculture system has been built around migrant labor. The solution is not to stop employing migrant laborers. The solution is to acknowledge that migrant laborers are an integral part of this country and change our immigration system so that they have worker’s right and can’t be as easily exploited.

              1. Batgirl*

                This is a brilliant explanation and I love how you busted up the “everyone is trafficked” stereotypes.

              2. Jane Anonusten*

                I would like to shout this from the rooftops: “The solution is to acknowledge that migrant laborers are an integral part of this country and change our immigration system so that they have worker’s right and can’t be as easily exploited.”

              3. Agvocate*

                Actually a lot of “factory farms” have the same situation as the farms you are describing. They pay a wage plus housing, and often take their employees shopping and to doctors appointments or arrange for someone to do so. Most farms depend on undocumented labor and they know that without them they’d be totally screwed. I know plenty of farms where the owners take home pay is the same or less than their undocumented workers. And it doesn’t matter what size they are, just like all industries there are shitty ones and good ones of all sizes. If you treat your employees crappy, you’re likely to lose employees and not get new ones. In my area the undocumented farm workers mostly all know each other and word spreads pretty quickly about who you do and don’t want to work for. Let’s not vilify the farms that grow the food we eat simply because of their size and instead focus on the problem that is our immigration system is horribly broken and needs to be fixed.

      2. a tester, not a developer*

        During the first wave of Covid, a high number of agricultural workers got seriously ill, and quite a few died. I’m not in the sector, but I’ve heard from friends that it’s harder to get workers from abroad (documented or not) because a lot of them are leery of being seriously ill away from their loved ones.

        I’m in Canada, so it may be different here, as opposed to someplace like California where I imagine cross border travel is easier.

  12. Job Seeker*

    I have been job searching for a few months across the media industry. Knowing the person hiring still seems to be the key to success. In that sense, I don’t think it’s any easier than before to find a new position. However, friends in industries with more traditional recruiting/ hiring practices do seem to be finding more opportunities than usual.

    1. Pants*

      I firmly believe “who you know” is one of the best ways to get a job. I hate that it’s like that, but it’s always been the case for me. Even just knowing someone at a recruiting/staffing firm is incredibly beneficial. It’s how I got my last two positions.

    2. LP*

      My husband works in media, and I think opportunity in that industry is MUCH more based on who you know than in traditional industries. He started out with an internship when he was 18, but Every. Single. Job. He has had since then, he’s gotten through a connection. I feel for you, that can be tough.

      1. Janet*

        I work in the media industry and our experience is that we are getting a ton of applications for every job posted, but most people are not highly qualified or great fits. A colleague told me he had 150 applications for a fairly cool job, but it was very easy to quickly cut the list to six people to interview. The person who got the job was an internal applicant. So sure, personal connections can help, but it is also just a super competitive industry.

    3. KaciHall*

      My mother got me my current job. I absolutely hate that the owner of my company is friends with my mother (and her son is friends with my much younger baby brother – on the same high school baseball team) because I feel as though I am constantly underestimated. I’m mid thirties, have my own kid in school, and have been working full time for the past 18 years. But to my bosses, they think of me as Terri’s kid first, then as an adult employee.

      I’m also getting massively underpaid, and I find it hard to bring up BECAUSE of the family ties. I need to put in applications elsewhere (somewhere I can WFH!) but rejection tends to make anxiety and depression ramp up, so I’ve just been miserable.

      It’s not been a great time lately.

  13. The Smiling Pug*

    During my recent months of job-searching, I found that jobs were either junior or senior positions, and paid in peanuts. Others were simply not honest with what they were advertising. It was very frustrating and I cried a lot before I accepted an offer.

  14. anonymouse*

    We’ve had an open position since September.
    HR informed my supervisor that they’ve gotten no qualified candidates.
    I don’t know where the disconnect is between the job posting, the applicants and HR.

    1. anonymouse*

      This is not a criticism of HR. I mean that their hands are tied. I’m afraid they are stuck on a script/requirements that maybe my department needs to update/edit. For example, education, lots of fields are applicable…or specific software. If you’ve never used our software, that shouldn’t matter. It’s proprietary.
      But we’ve hired two people in the last two years with the same posting, so what the heck happened?

            1. Ashley*

              Like when I got a warning one time that my resume lacked required experience for the job because it was looking for “supervisory” experience? 2nd job title on resume: Supervisor.

            2. DJ Abbott*

              In 2020 an ATS automatically rejected me from a job where my experience was an exact match for the posting because I don’t have a bachelors degree.

      2. Trawna*

        Yep. And, attempting to bait & switch on WFH when you’re about to finalize the offer on a well-paying job. I had to start all over again with my search, and now I’ve been unemployed for nearly five months (international relocation for personal reasons), instead of the six weeks I was at when my gut and I turned down the bait & switcher
        (who also showed signs of micro-management).

        I’m awaiting second round interviews on my two favoured roles. Fingers-crossed.

      3. Not So NewReader*

        Great point, Barry. I wonder how much of all the problems we are talking about here go back to the ATS.

        Years ago, I applied for a job where I knew the manager. He said that he never got the application. He either lied or there was a huge problem with the ATS. After thinking about this, I realized he could submit my hours and the system might lose that, too. who knows? I moved on.

        1. Cedrus Libani*

          I’ve had that happen also. Turned out that the job posting included “Microsoft Office” and HR was disposing of all resumes that did not say the magic word. When the VP who’d referred me asked HR about it, they gave me an interview…except it was for an entry-level admin position, and the hiring manager was told that I was the unqualified friend of a VP who had no experience and also didn’t know how to use a computer. Meanwhile, I’m a highly specialized engineer; I thought I was walking into a technical interview.

          I laughed it off, but then I decided to take that hiring manager’s advice, and I put a keyword section on my resume – which does, to this very day, include Office.

      4. Leilah*

        Yep! my company had huge issues with ATS blocking good people even before the pandemic. They had to mothball a whole research wing because of it. It was research in animal agriculture but the unit was poultry specific. Turns out if the resume didn’t actually say the word “poultry” HR was throwing them in the trash. Finally the hiring manager got frustrated and after being mothballed for 6 months, pulled out all the resumes they had thrown out and scanned them by hand. Hired two excellent people – one who worked with “birds” in “wildlife rehab” and one who worked with “all species of farm animals” in “animal science and nutrition”. Obviously excellent, frankly overqualified candidates but they didn’t say the magic word. Terrible system.

        The same system also rejected my roommate because she only had 2.5 years livestock experience and not 3 years like they asked. The job sat open for 6 months costing them half a million dollars, conservatively, because they never even got to see her resume.

      5. Not Tom, Just Petty*

        I think the ATS is a big thing. There was a month with no applications. Someone out their is application bombing. And it didn’t hit us? Not buying it!

        1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

          OK, so much for editing. I tried to fix “someone out there application bombing” and “someone is application bombing their”
          I’m going back to work.
          Cuz my place is getting nothing, too.

    3. gbca*

      When HR says that, ask to see all resumes. It’s pretty quick to flip through them and you can see whether HR is holding back candidates that you’d consider.

      1. Ama*

        I would definitely advise this — many years ago at another job my department was trying to hire a new department head and HR kept telling the hiring committee there were no qualified candidates. It turned out the HR person who set up the ATS screen had misunderstood how to set it up, and was accidentally screening out all of the qualities the committee had specifically said they wanted to see. It wasn’t until someone on the committee knew a qualified candidate had applied and asked why they weren’t showing up on the list that anyone looked closely enough at the system set up to realize what had happened.

      2. Cascadia*

        Yes for sure! I have a friend who runs a preschool within a very large state university system. Despite multiple meetings with HR, they still have trouble getting HR to send them the resumes for the actually qualified people who are applying. HR sends them resumes for people with experience teaching college-graduates and rejects people with experience teaching preschoolers, despite the fact that that is exactly what they are looking for! My friend finally figured this out when someone reached out and said they had been rejected despite having ALL the qualifications for the job – my friend running the preschool had never seen their resume. She now has to set up a new system with HR where they just automatically send her all the resumes because she doesn’t trust them to not reject well-suited candidates.

    4. Jane Anonusten*

      Ask to see the resumes, and ask where they’re posting. My company did a round of hiring in 2018 for supply chain category management and had masses of qualified applicants, and then when my team did a posting in early 2021 got nothing. My manager asked to see the resumes (indeed not matching what we were looking for) and where they posted — winds up they posted on different sites in 2021 than in 2018. My manager asked them to post to the sites from 2018 and behold: plenty of qualified applicants.

    5. ecnaseener*

      Any chance the job posting language is pre-Covid boilerplate that doesn’t clarify remote work options? I know my team’s openings are still being posted as “office environment” despite that we’ve been fully remote the whole time -_-

      1. DJ Abbott*

        Today I looked at some job postings were someone had typed “NA” in front of lines like that.
        They were too busy to change it, just updated it.

    6. donedonedone*

      I Left the company I had worked at for ten years in August. They haven’t been able to fill my position, probably for all the same reasons I left.
      They wanted me to travel up to 40% of the time, most were weekends, while managing strategic initiatives, day to date administration, and managing a department and staff. I heard they have interviewed around 10 people, but basically all of them have dropped out. Seems like, maybe, they need to re-work the job and probably add at least a couple people to the department. Not my circus anymore!

    7. Danielle*

      I work as a web developer – When I left my last job, they couldn’t find anyone local qualified to replace me. Legit – one of the candidates HR sent over was an actual baker. As in they worked in a bakery.

      When my former team pushed back at HR to ask why they’re sending them bakers and not someone (anyone) with web experience, the HR rep said, “Oh, I thought that all the stuff on his resume was technical jargon and would be fine.”

      #headdesk

  15. Miss Fisher*

    The company I am with has a ton of openings that are the lower pay grade jobs. Minimum Wage at the company is $18 an hour and benefits are pretty decent, but they still cannot seem to fill the roles. These are all customer facing, so could be part of it.

    1. Ori*

      Is it ‘in person’ customer facing? I had several (vaccinated) relatives catch Covid toward the end of last year. One is still badly struggling. I have an underlying condition and I’m possibly more concerned now than I was this time last year.

        1. DANGER: Gumption Ahead*

          All of my friends who were in in-person, customer facing roles have jumped into in-person, not customer facing roles, mostly in warehouse, shipping, logistics, etc.. The jobs are just as demanding, the bosses and management are just as terrible, but the schedules are slightly more predictable, benefits a bit better, but, most important, NO MORE DEALING WITH THE PUBLIC, AT ALL, EVER!!!! No getting yelled at, spit on, having things thrown at them, harassed in the parking lot, etc.. Honestly, I’m not sure any would go back unless you were talking $30+ an hour with better benefits, and I don’t blame them at all.

  16. LCH*

    Library/archives: haven’t seen anything too different. Pay is still low, not an abundance of jobs. I assume people haven’t been mass quitting in my field although I know a lot were laid off or furloughed due to closures. Unclear if restaffing has begun yet.

    1. Ori*

      There are a lot of library jobs in my area – I suspect because many of the roles were filled by semi-retired (more vulnerable people). I think also the pay is, as you say low, and the conditions aren’t the best in terms of things like lone working and hours.

    2. Richard Hershberger*

      Anecdatum: A friend of mine, with library-adjacent experience until the business shut down, just got hired with a public library. I don’t know the exact role.

    3. MagnusArchivist*

      Same here. Perhaps seeing fewer soft money jobs than I’d usually expect with grant cycles, actually. Wonder if people held off on applying for grants last year due to ~gestures vaguely~ everything?

      1. MagnusArchivist*

        although we’re currently hiring interns and didn’t get the wave of wildly overqualified applicants I expected, so, that’s a good sign?

        1. Mme. Briet’s Antelope*

          We’re also hiring interns (who we pay and everything!) and actually got such a wave of UNDERqualified applicants that we wound up just auto-hiring everyone who met the qualifications. Which definitely seems like a good sign!

          1. Overeducated*

            I’m also seeing low numbers of intern applications with the qualifications we’re asking for. I assumed it was because in this case we are working with a partner and I’m not sure they distributed it very widely (lesson learned for next time – request posting and do more legwork), but it’s interesting if there’s a pattern. I wonder why! Our internship is either partially or fully remote and pays about 25% more than comparable internship programs, so I don’t think it’s either of those issues.

          2. MagnusArchivist*

            same! but we did get enough that met the qualifications (in that they’re students with some relevant coursework) and aren’t, say, someone with an MLIS (or a PhD!) and years of experience. We got those last year & it was really heartbreaking.

    4. Mme. Briet’s Antelope*

      Archives, and likewise. I get paid well for the field in my current position and refuse to take a paycut unless I absolutely have to, which is making job-hunting an exercise in opening tabs, scanning the job posting, and immediately closing out of them again.

      We recently posted an ad for a specialized role and only got four even semi-qualified applicants, but I suspect that’s because the ad wasn’t up very long more than anything else.

    5. Raintree*

      Library tech here, in academia. Had a position cut last year, leaving me in a bad spot. I’ve been looking and there just isn’t anything library-related available. I’m overqualified for this position, yet underqualified for a lot of jobs that I used to be able to do. I’d need training to get up to speed. Kinda lost here.

    6. Sel*

      I’m an academic librarian at a major research institution (think a campus of 60,000+) and we have a NUMBER of positions at my library that desperately need to be filled (like, say, oh, head of ILL) but are not currently listed or soliciting candidates. We’ve also majorly reduced our buildings’ open hours compared to pre-Covid times since reopening in the fall, and that shows no sign of changing. We don’t have the staff bandwidth for the desks and I suspect we don’t have it for major searches now, either, regardless of how desperately needed the position is. Hopefully we can get on that soon. In the meantime, I will enjoy not having to work weekends.

    7. Canadian Librarian #72*

      Yep, seems more or less the same to me. I’m doing back to back academic part-time contracts, and the hourly rate isn’t bad, but we get less than 20 hours per week, so I’m having to work two jobs. At least we’re unionized so I get supplemental health benefits.

    8. PumpkinSpice4Ever*

      Libraries-adjacent here: I salute everyone currently searching for a position. It was absolute hell when I was in the market in 2016-2017, when I had 15 years’ experience and everything was either entry-level or director-level and exactly zero of my experience involved management. No public library would touch me, and specialized libraries wanted their own unicorns. No one paid near what I’d made at OldJob, and I had to find the best-paying job from what was available. I suspect it’s similar out there right now. Ugh.

      1. tech services staff*

        Commiseration high-five. I was unemployed 2017-2018 and yup, it was all entry level (three years experience required, $15/hr if you were lucky, often part time) or library director.

    9. Oat Milk Market*

      Public Library Assistant here. We’re having extremely high turnover. Makes sense for pt roles with no benefits and low pay.

    10. tech services staff*

      Yup. Same old same old. The number of jobs in academic libraries seems to be continuing to shrink at the normal rate, with retiring being rare unless an incentive is offered (which recently happened at my new institution) — and when people do retire, the positions are either retired with them or “reworked” into a single position that does the job of three people.

    11. Frinkfrink*

      Work at a library here having trouble getting qualified candidates for the open position. Without being too detailed, our problems stem partly from the institutional level because we’re not allowed to put the salary range in the listing and partly from the actual writeup because it doesn’t emphasize the skills needed–they’re mentioned, in a short list of required skills, such that we get plenty of applicants that meet the other requirements. Unfortunately, we can teach the other skills but not the needed one. The listing effectively says “Required for the llama handler position: llama grooming, llama husbandry, llama nutrition” and we’re getting plenty of groomers and no nutritionists applying for what is essentially a nutritionist position with a bit of grooming and husbandry on the side.

    12. another Hero*

      in public libraries, I’ve seen only a sort of normal number of postings, but the ones I’ve applied for, the process has been *fast* – I’ve been contacted very shortly after the posting closed to interview within a few days, and then contacted again very shortly after the interview. also, every place I’ve applied has interviewed me. the consistent responses suggest to me that places are getting few applicants (not that I’m bad at my job or anything, but I have less than 5 years’ experience and I’m applying from out of state), and the turnaround speed that they’re worried about losing candidates and prioritizing hiring more highly than they usually would. I could be misinterpreting, though, and it’s a small sample size.

    13. Totally Booked*

      I am a public Library supervisor. I am currently hiring for a full-time librarian position and the candidate pool this time around is miles better than when we hired a librarian last year. Last year only one candidate out of half a dozen had any actual library experience. We hired the person, but they are so incompetent at their job that they may be the first person to be fired for being bad at their job in the 10 years that I have worked here. I say may because I have spent the last four months working extra hours producing extra documents for admin so that they will sign off on it. Support staff positions regularly had 50+ applicants when I supervised those positions before the pandemic. Now we are lucky to get candidates in the high single digits. Not qualified candidates, any candidates. Management positions are even worse. We have a lot of openings now and most branches need to keep posting up almost a year to get two candidates to interview. The Circulation supervisor position has reduced education requirements and is meant for experienced clerks to almost double their salary and advance with more responsibilities. It went from being a highly contested position to the one can’t be filled.

      Our pay is not earth shattering but it is the highest in our state. We have always had a problem with how long the hiring process is. We could probably double the size of our human resources department and it would be overwhelmed. Unfortunately, with the way budgets work, the only way to hire more HR staff would be to lay off staff in another department.

    14. View from both sides*

      I was laid off in June 2021 and had two offers within a month and a half (and about a half dozen interviews that I assume nothing happened with since I didn’t withdraw or hear anything). First line management level. One offer in the industry I worked in for about 13 years and the other in a different industry (I’d been trying to get out of my industry for awhile and took the offer that gave me that change, which I am all around happy with over a year later). So I didn’t find personally that I had issues with getting a job.

      We are currently trying to hire mid level people and are getting very few applicants. It’s a cool, well known-ish brand, and the pay is reasonable for the experience. Not spectacular, but pretty decent. And we got it bumped a bit from pretty decent. In this job function it’s pretty standard to make somewhere in the $80-90k range for a sr level person. Lower level positions probably pay average around $70-$80k. We hired a very close to entry level person (I admit I went and poached him from my last company because we had basically no applicants) at $85k. That’s actually very good pay for the level this job is. But we can’t get people to apply. Not even like “oh, no one is qualified who applies), but literally 7 applicants for a job (we did hire one of those for the opening). It’s a good company that has been very responsible during COVID. We have spent a lot of time thinking about what might be keeping people from applying and have modified the job descriptions and reduced required experience and bumped the pay level. But still we aren’t doing particularly well attracting talent.

      One of the Sr Dir I work with has been trying to hire for a professional six figure position for awhile. He isn’t getting bites. He definitely does want to hire because he is doing the work of this position since the last guy was there.

      1. View from both sides*

        Also, I meant I was laid off in 2020. Because who even knows what year it is anymore?

    15. library worker*

      A few library-field notes:

      -a ton of open positions across my state… for directors (and many small-library director positions are part-time/low pay)
      -academic libraries out of state cold-emailing colleagues about open positions (!!!)
      -my previous, academic and non-degreed, position remaining unfilled ~4 months after my departure (and after a boost to the hourly rate, which was quite low & is still not what a non-degreed library worker would make in various area public libraries)
      -no real changes to civil service procedures, pay bands, or other significant factors

  17. Age of the Geek, Baby*

    Salary. It’s salary.
    One of my coworkers was promoted, and my boss was left with the task to hire his replacement. He reworked the job title and some of the duties that he wanted the position to be and others that were added on over time. (We work in communications/media)
    What I heard: lots of applicants, but the big problem was they were not interested in the job once they heard the salary.
    We finally hired someone, and they are getting paid $40K – more than I’m making and apparently A LOT MORE than what my coworker was making in that position….

    (And yes, my boss is aware of the pay disparity, and yes, he is aware I want a raise so probably will be seeking scripts when it comes to performance review time.)

      1. Age of the Geek, Baby*

        Thanks! I rewatched the series recently and I change who is my favorite depending on the episode!

    2. HQB*

      You don’t have to wait for performance review time to ask for a raise. Especially given current conditions, it might be beneficial for you to ask now.

      1. Age of the Geek, Baby*

        Thanks. I low-key have been asking for the raise since that came out. My boss said he made it clear to his boss he would be putting in a budget request for my raise.

        It’s more like I guess I need a script just in case- and more importantly a promotion I’ve been wanting (and working on a foundation for) since March 2021

        1. Me (I think)*

          Well, based on this, if you leave then it’ll cost your company about $40K more than they are paying you to fill your role. That should get their attention.

        2. Artemesia*

          I hope you are also job searching; it may be the only way to get paid fairly. I worked in a sector for years where the pay disparity was enormous and the only way to get a significant raise was to have a job offer elsewhere. I was lucky in that I had a boss who gave me large raises two years in a row — 20% each time — to deal with the gap caused by original low hiring wage and changes in compensation for newer hires — but I know lots of people stuck with low salaries compared to newer hires. Not everyone does equity.

          1. Age of the Geek, Baby*

            I don’t want to get into it in a lot of detail. But I will say:
            -I’m a journalist. This is a low-paying industry where $40K for my position is CRAZY high, for local reporters. Not that I’m saying it’s OK. It’s not.
            -This is my third job in this industry.
            -I am surprised about how they do believe in treating staff fairly (compared to small business hell I was into in Job 1 and corporations who want to underpay no matter what for job 2.
            -I am fairly confident I could get a job in my market with ease. I got a recruiting call two weeks ago. The problem is, I sincerely doubt they would even get me to $40K.
            -No money, none in the world, is worth sacrificing your principles and I learned that the hard way, and it would be something I would have to do at the company that is trying to recruit me.
            -I am using that recruiting call to leverage said raise.

            1. Middle of HR*

              This is why I want to tell my boss that salary posting laws are a good thing. We are a media org and pay more than 40k for local reporters. 15k+. But people probably don’t know that based on other companies like yours. Given, we don’t hire in every place in the country and there are only so many jobs, but still!
              …Look for places with a union, with a contract in place if you decide to look elsewhere.
              Good luck!

    3. HigherEd-staycation*

      I echo the salary and in some industries- such as higher ed- more and more is expected due to the impact of COVID on retention, with no change in compensation. I also hear you on the disparity- it becomes a catch 22, pay the person coming in more to get them and then lose others because of salary compression.

  18. Spearmint*

    My office recently hired for an entry level-ish position for ok but not amazing pay, and we weren’t exactly flooded with quality applicants,
    though we’re all very happy with the person we hired. That said, if she had turned down the offer, we probably would have reposted rather than offer to one of the other interviewees.

    The broader agency I work in is having trouble filling positions, though, judging from the record number of posted job openings and retention issues.

  19. Totalanon*

    Very curious to read this thread. I’ve seen rumors on social media that companies are deliberately not hiring (or have an unreasonably onerous hiring process) but loudly declaring they are desperate for workers so that customers will tolerate slower service and employees will tolerate unreasonable workloads.

    1. Spearmint*

      That strikes me as verging into conspiracy theory territory. If that was true, some businesses would simply provide better service and best the competition.

      Besides, I don’t see how it would benefit say, a restaurant, to have slower service. That’s fewer customers served, which means less profit.

      1. Richard Hershberger*

        I too am skeptical of the conspiracy version, but I am entirely open to the incompetence version, whether unrealistic expectations in requirements or pay, or badly designed automated filtering systems.

      2. Richard Hershberger*

        I also suspect that in-person retail and restaurant jobs really are hard to fill. I see a lot of help wanted signs in businesses in my area. They are stressful and exhausting under the best of circumstances, and more so nowadays, and the pay is not good.

        1. LinuxSystemsGuy*

          I am friendly with the owner of the local restaurant I frequent (and I used to be in the industry myself right out of college). I have also seen how hard she works, and how she treats staff (at least in public), so I trust she isn’t just doing the “woe is me” thing. She says that finding staff is very hard right now, no matter what’s they offer (within reason) for pay.

          One thing that she’s brought up in conversation is that the industry (and by extension similar industries like retail) is in a vicious circle of low staff. Staffing is low so in order to cover shifts, they need people to work more and longer shifts, and have a harder time approving time off. People know this, or notice it right after starting, so they don’t want to work the ridiculous hours, so staffing remains low, so people have to work more and longer shifts…

          1. DANGER: Gumption Ahead*

            My friends who have left food service since 2020 did it for 1) NO DEALING WITH THE PUBLIC – when service gets slower, staff are treated worse by customers and customers are AWFUL right now 2) predictable schedules set out 2 weeks or more in advance 3) healthcare, dental, vision, and 401(k). 2 of the 3 of these are in the control of restaurant owners, but 1 is totally out of their hands unless they are willing to strictly enforce customer behavior and risk losing sales

            1. Marny*

              Not to mention, restaurant jobs are currently one of the least safe when it comes to virus transmission. Customers are maskless since they’re eating and drinking and very few restaurants have vaccine requirements for customers. If you can have a job that avoids that issue instead, why would you work in a restaurant right now?

        2. MissBaudelaire*

          I kinda think it’s a little from column A and a little from column B. We have a lot of places here that do bait and switches, or never call anyone back (ever), or have six rounds of interviews for very low paying jobs. But because wages went up in ‘better’ industries, people who might have worked those in person jobs aren’t in that pool anymore. They moved up and moved on, and they’re not going back. Why would they?

        3. BabyElephantWalk*

          I’m sure they are hard to fill. But we have plenty of local restaurant owners on the news complaining about not being able to hire, and then going on to explain exactly why they are their own problem. “It’s hard, people keep leaving for full time positions” and then telling us how they are trying and failing to hire 8 part time workers. And why are employees going to work for peanuts, while the owners show up in luxury cars. This is so so common in this industry with the employers who are whining.

      3. Alpacas Are Not Dairy Animals*

        Small businesses (and siloed segments of big businesses, and in a few notable cases entire big businesses) are just as vulnerable to becoming ‘sick systems’ in the Issendai sense as families and romantic relationships, with the same tendency to create avoidable crises to instill learned helplessness and avoid people leaving.

        It’s also trivially true that businesses will do things that don’t make short term financial sense to foster the social system they want – that’s why we still have employer-linked health care more than fifty years after it stopped being desirable from an employee perspective.

      4. Jaybee*

        Unfortunately, numerous studies have shown that ‘providing good customer service’ is in no way necessary, and most of the most profitable companies are those with notoriously poor customer service.

    2. Miss Fisher*

      That is what stinks though. We have the same issue at work. People are so busy and strapped so thin that they are working weekends and well until after midnight just to stay caught up. No overtime pay because they are salaried. Everyone is well aware that they need to expand and add employees, but the catch 22 is that the work is getting done. So now the argument is they dont need more job openings, since they are handling the work. These are all mid level back office jobs. The junior level customer facing roles are out there, they are just not being filled.

      1. Ori*

        Had this years ago. Was running myself ragged. A more senior staffer eventually pulled me aside and told me that I needed to start dropping balls or else they would never hire help. They were right, but I also took a reputational hit.

      2. Trawna*

        The key in these situations is to log all the hours worked even if you don’t get paid OT. This provides metrics so Management can advocate for more budget.

    3. DataGirl*

      it may be a conspiracy theory but I believe it. it may be less true for offices, but retail, absolutely. People still have to buy groceries even if there’s half a many cashiers and you have to wait in line 30 minutes to pay. I think retail has realized the customers will keep coming even if the service is crap, so why pay out all that extra money on wages when they can pocket the profit instead.

      1. JelloStapler*

        I agree, I cannot say that there is not ANY truth to it. Capitalism is keep costs (=pay) low so profits are high. Figure out when it is no longer profitable to do this then finally change approach.

      2. MissBaudelaire*

        Yup. In your groceries example, even ‘skipping the line’ by doing curbside pick up just means that they can have a fewer cashiers because fewer people come in.

        1. Chirpy*

          Curbside pickup just means they pull staff to fill the pickup orders, and leave fewer people to cashier or stock the store, leaving those roles short handed because it really doesn’t decrease the number of people still coming inside most places. Which means the people who come inside are worse than ever because they can’t find what they need. Picking orders also takes a lot of time even if the system works well.

    4. Church Office Manager*

      I saw something on Facebook the other day that resonated with me. Basically, lots of people look down on fast food/retail/wait staff type workers and have said for years that those workers should just get better jobs if they want to be paid more. And now they’re reaping what they sowed as those “menial” workers have moved on. Restaurants with limited hours, fast food restaurants only offering drive thru service, etc. And it’s not just here in the US. My sister lives in the Netherlands and she says that most restaurants are only open 4 days a week and close by 9 PM because of a lack of workers.

      1. Michelle*

        Where I live everyone is complaining that no one wants to work retail/fast food/ etc., but my four oldest kids (16-23yo) have been desperately looking for exactly that kind of work and no one is hiring. Or if they are, it’s for so few hours it won’t cover rent. My oldest has been through one job after another where they hire “full-time” and then cut her down to 20 hours (or, at her current job, one day a week!!) and she has to go looking again.

        1. LKW*

          This is the model big chains have been working on for years and this is what’s getting them into trouble now. More workers with fewer hours per worker means all shifts are covered but no one qualifies for any benefits, keeping corporate costs lower. Fewer workers means each worker is edging closer to benefit qualification so they either have to shut early to avoid that consequence thereby shorting their sales or accept the higher operating costs.

          1. Michelle*

            She’s not even trying to get benefits, just enough hours to pay rent. When they say “full-time,” we’ve figured out that they don’t actually mean 40 hours a week, more like 30. That would be enough to cover rent and food, but then they cut her down even more.

            1. MissBaudelaire*

              It happens here, too. Only then those same business will call you on your day off to demand you come in and get mad when you say no because… Well, you might be working another job because you have bills to pay or doing other errands that need doing. Because you were scheduled for a day off. Then they punish you for ‘not being a team player’ by cutting your hours more. Then they wonder why people quit.

            2. FridayFriyay*

              It’s telling to me that they are considering 30 hours full time and then trying to staff just below it, since that’s the threshold to be required to offer certain types of benefits. Tells me a lot about the employer’s mindset (nothing good.)

              1. Starbuck*

                Hey, I wish everyone considered 30 hours a week to be full time! That would be great. As long as there was pay an benefits to match.

          2. pancakes*

            Yes. It’s called just-in-time scheduling. I believe in the UK it’s called a zero-hour contract.

            1. The Dogman*

              And it is called criminal by the people who look at it honestly.

              All “at will” “just in time” and “zero-hour” contracts are immoral in my opinion.

              And the result of them is what we see, failing businesses and people too poor to shop or eat at them.

          3. JKB*

            The big chain I work for just has tons of “part-time” workers. I’ve been there over 10 years and get about 39 hours per week, but I’m only a part-time worker. One of my previous store bosses said the department I worked in had “too many” full time positions and when people retired, those positions were eliminated.

            Two departments now do NOT have dept heads, they have part time staff instead and those people are summoned to registers as the need arrives. I was recently told the only thing that matters for my dept is counting the TOTAL of sold teapots, trying to figure out if the floral ones sell better than the glittered ones or the tie-dyed teapots no longer matters. I used to spend hours making spreadsheets about the demographics of tea pot varieties.

        2. DataGirl*

          My 20 year old has the same problem. Gets hired being told she can work as many hours as he wants, then gets scheduled for like, two 4 hour shifts per week. Puts in a ton of applications, gets no calls back. Applies to restaurants advertising $17/hr, goes to interview to find out it’s actually $3/hr but they expect you’ll make the rest in tips.

          Why hire anyone when you can just tell customers “sorry, no one wants to work” and have them be patient waiting?

      2. Nanani*

        Didn’t NL have a curfew as a covid spread prevention measure? Closing earlier is a consequence of that (plus not wanting to change everybody’s hours every time the government has a change of heart) at least as much as staffing

      3. Iris Eyes*

        They are still trying to hire most of their workers part time but fully open availability. Retail has always been a fairly stressful environment but customers these days are often one step away from unhinged. The gig economy has taken a lot of the people who need part time work and usually need it on their own schedule. (I mean if you aren’t going to get benefits either way…) Retail managers are working 80hr weeks, can’t take vacation without the store going up in smoke (sometimes literally) and that isn’t going to give anyone the emotional resources to adequately manage people. Oh and the bonusing structure is so tortured that probably isn’t happening.

        If you are going to have to do some sort of “grunt” type job, why wouldn’t you go to a warehouse? Sure its probably more physical but you are getting paid double plus benefits (a few extra dollars an hour at full time hours).

        Another thing, restaurant industry has long been a place that disadvantaged populations have filled. Immigrants in particular, I know one family where the parents did the custodial/child care thing and are very proud of their most successful daughter who manages a fast food restaurant. Well the last 5 years especially we haven’t been allowing legal immigration in near the numbers that we apparently need. Now don’t get me wrong the whole class system with brown immigrants on or near the bottom (unless they are at the top) is pretty crappy on a “we are founded on the ideal of equality” thing, but I do wonder how many of the open positions would have been filled if we hadn’t nearly cut off the flow of talent.

    5. Lily of the Field*

      I am seeing the same things; and I do NOT think it is any kind of conspiracy theory. I think it is true and accurate. I work in a retail adjacent industry (I am a vendor), and almost all of the retail locations I am servicing, this is occurring. The problem is that the US no longer has a manufacturing economy, which is one of the main reasons for the creation and spread of the stable middle class in the US. We have a predominantly service economy, and these jobs have historically been low paying, very entry level jobs, for the most part. The problem is that we are ACTING as if we are still a manufacturing economy, and continuing to treat service based industry jobs as entry level, deserving of poor pay. However, service jobs are now the majority of jobs available currently. Another problem is that the service economy is rife with the attitude that only C suite level employees are deserving of good pay and good benefits, because lower employees are all of “lower class” and do NOT deserve good pay and good benefits. Service industries are infamous for being all about profit for high level employees and all too often illegal treatment of boots on the ground level employees; you know, the employees that guarantee the business actually STAYS in business, unlike far too many C suite employees. An all too common attitude of most people is that, if one does not like their service job, they should just “get a better job”; unfortunately, depending on circumstances, this is not always an option, or even possible. The service economy desperately needs some of the same civil activism that the manufacturing economy received long ago, to make this a better economy for all. Just as an example, flipping burgers may not be a very COMPLEX job, but it is still deserving of respect and dignity, ESPECIALLY in this day and age, when so many people do not cook at all, and very much depend on others to do their cooking for them. Until we take seriously the problems with the perception of the predominant economy in this country, problems like this will continue to occur.

      3. Not So NewReader*

        Thank you, this is so very well stated.
        I spent time in retail and time in light manufacturing. It has always been obvious to me that our society has a very high sense of entitlement.
        “I want my $1 coffee.”
        “I want my sandwich to go, NOW!”
        “I want my item to arrive at my house five minutes after I order it!”

        Until we collectively realize there are actual people with actual lives behind all this, not much will change.
        I have often thought that if all minimum wage workers stayed home, our country would shut right now in a heartbeat. Eh, it was not long ago (with in the last 5 years or so) that I knew of police officers making $12/hr.

        It’s nuts, we want it ALL but we are not willing to pay for it ALL. (This is a collective “we” and I am not singling out any person or specific people.)

        1. Anne of Green Tables*

          I was talking to a family member on the phone a while back and thought a dental appointment might be needed for all my teeth grinding while listening to his bellyaching about how stimulus and unemployment money was shutting down the economy because lazy people (which seemed to be anyone in any service role) just wanted handouts. He was gleeful in his prediction that people would cave and come crawling back to their jobs when the government checks stopped coming.

          All of this stemmed from him not being able to get some restaurant food right when he wanted because they weren’t able to staff. When I suggested that the owner could probably get as many workers needed if the pay was higher, the response was “why should he?”, with the follow-up that “those people” (hopefully this was not racist!) “didn’t have any skills” and basically that they should better themselves, quit complaining, and do the work.

          He has literally not had a real-world job after age 30 and has survived decades investing money from his parents. No degree, no previous qualifications—just money handed to him and everything paid for. Zero compassion or understanding that there is a whole other world where people are beaten down every day just scraping by and maybe have moved from horrible jobs to less horrible jobs and maybe he has to wait a bit more for someone to hand him lunch.

          1. Chirpy*

            Also, how are “those people” expected to “better themselves” when they likely aren’t getting a living wage and are probably working bad, unpredictable hours? It’s not like one can easily pay for or go to school in those conditions.

          2. WonkyStitch*

            I read a book last year called “Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right” by sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild. This is a fairly common mindset of many Americans, even those who are themselves poor or underpaid. That there’s a huge group of people stealing “their” hard earned tax dollars by sitting home collecting welfare etc.

      5. The Dogman*

        Careful now… you are being dangerously rational!

        You will be declared a “Radical” soon if this gets out lol! ;)

      7. Chirpy*

        And it’s not even that flipping burgers or retail isn’t necessarily a complex job – it’s a very physically demanding one (often on one’s feet on concrete for 8+ hours a day, lifting heavy items – I generally walk 6-8 miles in a day at work and sometimes lift literal multiple tons of weight in a day by hand) that may also require a vast knowledge of the products sold and their uses, keeping track of prices and sales, remembering where thousands of items are stocked on the shelves, what can and can’t be special ordered, using the computer systems for ordering, stocking, inventory, etc. as well as handling customers who may be unreasonable, argumentative, sexist, abusive, etc in a calm and professional manner with little to no help or back up from management. It is the store level people who give the company its reputation for good or bad service, who make customers want to come back and spend more, not people in a distant office. It just is the sort of knowledge you learn on the job and not from a college degree, and therefore devalued.

    6. Gary Patterson's Cat*

      I have long held to my (unproven) theory that many public companies post and keep posting a lot of job openings that don’t really exist (phantom jobs) and it’s all a sham. They do this in order to look good to Wall Street analysts, shareholders, investors, and private equity/vc firms because it makes them look like they are profitable, desirable, and growing. Because you must be doing good as a company if you’re posting 500 job openings nationwide, right?

      I say this with some confidence because I once worked at a startup company and they did this all the time to look more attractive. It’s the game of Wall Street catfishing.

      1. Michelle*

        Ooooh, I know a company that was doing something like that. Advertising jobs and giving interviews about how they were doing so well and growing, while also closing down entire offices. I know someone who was laid off in one of those closures, and when he was interviewing for a new job they almost didn’t believe him and asked questions implying they thought there was something more to him losing his job because clearly that company wouldn’t be laying people off! Fortunately he was able to convince them, as soon there were a lot more people from the same company job-searching in a very small field where word gets around.

      2. Not So NewReader*

        This is actually happening. I have applied for jobs only to be told, “There’s no opening now, we just want a pool of resumes on file.”
        Okay, then say so in your ad. wth.

        1. DJ Abbott*

          I had a temp agency do this when I applied for a specific job on their site. This temp agency has a huge and glowing reputation and is the first that comes up in a Google search. At least they didn’t make me spend an hour filling in ATS fields… They did get me an interview for a receptionist/admin position, but I didn’t get it.
          Meanwhile I’m getting actual work and submissions for permanent jobs and real support from another agency.

    7. a tester, not a developer*

      I mentioned something like that upthread – rumour here is that businesses are using the ‘labour shortage’ as a way to reduce open hours without a lot of customer pushback. We’ve noticed there’s a lot fewer options if you need something after 10pm now, compared to in the before times.

      1. MissBaudelaire*

        Someone I know on Facebook said they felt we had ‘grown too big’ in some ways. Why are all these places 24 hrs, they asked. Does anyone need to go to the store at two in the morning? It never used to be that way!

        It’s an interesting idea. I mean, on the one hand you’d think they had to be making money, right? Otherwise they would have shut it down? Or maybe they tried and people got all up in arms because we like having all those options? I don’t know.

        1. Not So NewReader*

          Actually, I kind of agree with this. I grew up in the era of Sunday blue laws. Nothing was open on Sunday. Using that time as a comparison we have a mind-boggling number of stores now. I can remember planning to go for a family ride on Sunday. This involved making sure the tank was full on Saturday because no gas stations were open on Sunday. It also meant packing snacks because there were not a lot of convenience stores and they too were not open. Finding a public restroom was… interesting.

          I thought it was extreme even back then. I remember saying to my father, “They should let some businesses be open.” Now we are faced with the opposite extreme where we just have too many businesses and they are open all the time. Businesses are making it work by taking it out of their employees’ hides. In a very simple example, we have a chain here that does not make people pre-pay for gas. The way the company makes it work is by terrorizing the employees about drive-offs. If you have a drive-off during your shift, you can plan on losing your job. All the public sees is that they do not have to pre-pay and they love that. The employer sees a high turn over in help and can’t figure out why.

        2. Leilah*

          Maybe they *were* making money when they could be open 24hrs and pay $8/hr, but now that customer-facing roles were hit by the pandemic and also people want more wages, it no longer makes a net profit to be open past peak hours.

        3. Jaybee*

          It’s a deluded competition based on bad business practiced.

          Let’s say you have a city with a couple chains of convenience stores. One chain realizes, hey, sometimes people really need to buy something late at night (or, say, are going in to work a graveyard shift and want to buy a bottle of coke, etc.) so let’s be open 24 hours.

          They can afford to cut other costs because they’re filling that niche. It doesn’t matter if they’re not people’s first choice most of the time; they’re the ONLY choice for people who want or need to buy something at 2AM.

          But then the other convenience stores get concerned. They get jealous. If we’re not open at 2 AM, that means our customers are going to this other store instead! We’re missing out on profits! And what if customers decide they like other store better and never come back?

          So suddenly all of the chains are opening later and later. They’re cutting costs to open 24-hour locations. Initially it looks great – which is all that matters to the people making these decisions. A year down the line, when it becomes clear there aren’t enough people shopping at 2 AM to support these many 24-hour convenience stores, nobody is going to go ‘well this didn’t work out like we hoped’ and roll it back. They’re just going to keep looking for the next big move.

          1. Jaybee*

            Also worth noting that stores may be seeing a substantial change in people’s shopping habits as more office jobs become WFH/hybrid.

            A lot of people who were habitually shopping at 8 or 9 PM were not doing it out of choice, but because their work hours made it difficult to do otherwise. Now many people are getting back time in their day that once went to commuting, and many are more able to take breaks/flex time during the day to go shopping. I know it’s way quicker for me to run an errand in the middle of the day when working from home vs. when working at the office, so I’m more likely to run out on my lunch break rather than wait until after work hours to run to the pharmacy.

      2. Chirpy*

        My store had been expanding its hours pre-pandemic (7a-9p) then cut back severely (only open 9 or 10a-6pm) during lockdown as a “safety measure” (also, because it was dead in-store then and our original online-pick up system was completely incapable of handling the sudden influx of orders and used every single stocker to bring their department’s items to the pickup area individually, causing massive confusion.) They’ve gone to 8-8 now but honestly customers have stayed shifted mostly to mid-day and staff shortages mean there’s not a lot of people who can (or want to) work nights anymore either.

        People seem to be perfectly capable of buying stuff during more reasonable hours when they don’t have the option to put it off until late night anymore.

    8. Leilah*

      I have heard that but not seen much evidence. I have however seen chatter from small business owners and hiring managers that they are scared of no-shows/walk-offs so are only talking to people who look ROCK SOLID (for example, worked ten years in this exact job somewhere else and are still currently employed there). This seems like a silly strategy to me, but they are apparently more scared of no-shows than of having vacancies.

    9. Golden*

      Interesting, this might explain what’s been going on with my OB/GYN? They have a lot of “please be patient, we’re short staffed” messaging and are no longer doing yearly wellness visits, but every time I have been there (pregnant) the admin desk is packed full of staff and there’s nurses everywhere. And I’ve usually been the only patient, or seen just one other person there as well and tons of empty checkup rooms.

      It’s through a public hospital so maybe they are funded whether or not they see any patients? I don’t know much about that field, but it’s a bizarre experience every time. Wonderful people though!

      1. DocwholovesAAM*

        They might actually STILL be short staffed. If they have clinicians working from home and doing Telehealth due to COVID exposures, then somebody has to call all the patients and change their visits over to telehealth. You’re prioritized because you’re pregnant! But everywhere is getting annihilated with patient volumes too because of COVID questions. So you have a perfect storm where there’s more demand for healthcare and less people able to provide it.

        Also in public hospitals, there’s often issues over pay/staffing that are complicated enough not to bother explaining in this post, but let’s just suffice to say that your name brand medical institutions are often able to employ a lot more support people than public hospitals.

  20. English Rose*

    We’re recruiting mostly for care workers in my organisation in the UK – supporting people with intellectual/learning disabilities or autism. It’s REALLY tough! We are restricted in terms of salaries we can offer, although we provide excellent training so don’t need experience.
    It’s partly the pandemic putting people off care work because of the reputation for high infection rates in big care home (not our business model). It’s also partly the knock-on effects of Brexit (less said about that decision the better…): the hospitality sector relied heavily on free movement of people within the EU and now that has been cut off, they are snapping up people who would often have come into care work.
    So yes we are eager to hire and willing to give people with no experience a chance. We’re trying all kinds of different attraction routes. But applicant numbers have fallen off a cliff.

    1. Anon for this*

      You mentioned Brexit so I think this is tangentially worth mentioning – you can’t have this conversation about labor supply versus demand without talking about offshoring. I’m in the localization industry, based in the US. So many US companies are choosing to work with independent contractors outside of the US instead of hiring workers here. And I don’t mean just translators and other per project workers, this is for full-time project management, etc. The company doesn’t have to “bend over backwards” offering good benefits and saves by offering a lower salary for international workers, who in turn are hopefully happy with the arrangement, assuming they live in a low cost of living location. A mid-size company I used to work for is now half remote outside of the US. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but it does make it harder for someone living in the US to find a job with reasonable salary and benefits.

      1. irianamistifi*

        This happened to me at one of my previous jobs. I was a full time project consultant with a company known for consulting, but you get assigned to particular client and work on projects exclusively for that client. Well, my client learned that if they used a consultant from India, it would be a third of the cost of using me.

        I’m happy for my counterpart in India who is making good money for her region. But it put me out on my ass. My company declined to place me with another client so I had to go job searching again.

      2. Anon L10n*

        I also work in localization and this is very true, especially as work from home/anywhere is becoming more prevalent. I get it – offshoring operations means you cover more working hours (in an industry when contractors are located worldwide), decrease overhead, etc, but. It really has made it more difficult to find the same salary/benefits level as you might have even 5 years ago.

        1. English Rose*

          Agree, I used to work in a different sector and we offshored a lot. I had very mixed feelings about it.

    2. Green Kangaroo*

      I work in the same field in the U.S. and we are having the same issues, even without the Brexit complications ;)

      1. Dezzi*

        I work in this field as well, and I’m just going to come out and say it–we can’t hire care workers because the job sucks. It’s physically demanding and emotionally draining, depending on the location you may be getting called racial slurs and physically attacked on a regular basis, you’re going to be continually exposed to COVID, and we pay the same as Walmart. No one wants to do the job for what we’re paying, and as someone who did it for six years, I don’t blame them.

    3. Not So NewReader*

      Human services has it’s own special circumstances. I spent a decade in the field. The people we served was not what burned me out. What did me in is the ridiculous amount of laws and regs that basically straight-jacketed everyone trying to work in that field. And there is absolutely no extra funding to implement new regs as the regs go into place. So every year, employees are doing more on less and less.

      1. English Rose*

        You are so right! We are losing people regularly during pre-employment checks because it is so complex. Obviously we must protect anyone who is vulnerable but that can’t be done entirely by checks, it’s a question of intelligent management.
        And exactly the same situation about no extra funding right now as we implement new vaccination regs.
        Time for a nice glass of red I think! :)

  21. Darlingpants*

    I’m not looking but I have tons of recruiters cold emailing me.

    On the other side, we have a bunch of very urgent unfilled positions, some with very few applicants, but some of the hiring managers are still being really picky about experience requirements (as in not wanting to hire new PhDs and wanting experience in their specific subset of pharma, not just in general bio processing). I think it’s ridiculous, but it’s not my groups so I’m not in a position where it’s my business.

    1. Very anon*

      We’re being incredibly picky when hiring for a position, because the previous person who held the position was a rock star, we haven’t been given permission to hire MORE PEOPLE to make up for the fact that it’s unlikely the replacement will be as skilled as previous person, and as long as the position goes unfilled, we aren’t going to be penalized for the projects previous person was juggling not progressing quickly. In fact, other teams have been delegated to take some of the projects off our plate temporarily until the position is filled. So our boss is desperately trying to find someone who is excellent enough to step into former coworker’s shoes without dying, because anything less will be worse than the position going unfilled. If only we could get more manpower to split the projects between several people…

      1. Darlingpants*

        There’s definitely an opportunity cost to hiring the wrong person, and the flip side of being too understaffed for the current workload is that we don’t have a ton of time to train people from scratch (we’re a startup so trying to grow really fast). Like I said, I haven’t pushed anyone to reconsider (and it’s happening now with a current applicant who might come to my team instead because of the other teams bias against new graduates), but it seems wild to me that “we can’t give her Senior Scientist, she only has experience with clay teapot mass spectrometry, not porcelain teapot mass spectrometry. She needs to be a Scientist.” Then she goes to a different company who was willing to give her the Senior title and we have no scientist at all.

        1. MissBaudelaire*

          I have wondered how much of the issues I’m seeing are because so many companies got comfortable being super picky. It was possible to find a unicorn and pay them in dreams and slightly used duct tape. But that’s just not the case anymore, and these companies don’t understand that.

        2. LinuxSystemsGuy*

          This doesn’t seem like the time to be picky about scientific PhD level applicants. They’re hard enough to find in normal times

        3. JustaTech*

          Oh hello, me too! We’ve been hiring for several Scientist positions and almost all of them have gotten scooped up by the Giant Biotech that pays way more and has more benefits and growth and not our … reputation.

    2. PeanutButter*

      Same, but it’s all biotech SALES positions…I’m a research scientist/data analyst/general stats guru. WTF are these people seeing in my LinkedIn profile thinking I want to try to convince people that THEIR rabbit anitbodies are better than rabbit antibodies?

  22. Anon for This*

    Had one interview with people who were excited about my skills… that was advertised as a step up from entry level… and they wanted me to build out a department from almost nothing, and expected me to be a subject matter expert in their system from day 1. They were using a system that is a competitor to the system I use. I thanked them for their time and they kept trying to beg me to stay in the interview process.

    We didn’t even get to the talking about money stage but I was completely bewildered by the mismatch between what the qualifications they wanted were, and what they actually wanted.

    1. LinuxSystemsGuy*

      I mean, could you have done it? Sounds like a chance to jump a couple of levels really early in your career. Even if you only stayed for a year or two, you could go from “journeymen teapot maker” to “supervising teapot maker” more or less overnight.

      1. Anon for this*

        Could I? Probably. But, my current workplace is so dysfunctional, I would have serious doubts about my ability to effectively create a new, non dysfunctional department, from nothing, without significant prior experience working somewhere that is not dysfunctional (for example, our HR department refuses to accept the fact that our (incredible levels of skill required) department is a skilled department and says “all you do is open tickets” whenever we ask them to re examine our salary bands, and for some reason no one else has a problem with this)

    2. Nina Bee*

      I’m in UK in advertising and been seeing this a lot in the last few years even before the pandemic. Companies hiring junior/midweights for cheaper wage but putting senior responsibilities onto them. Or cutting down staff while maintaining the same level of work output so people work longer hours for the same salary. Or now wanting 2-3 totally different job skills rolled into one person so they only have to pay one wage.

  23. Anon Midwesterner*

    I’m not searching right now, but I have some info from the inside of a company. My department (marketing team of a large company) has about 40 open roles we’re actively hiring for.

    90% of those roles are remote within the US and open to wherever the talent is located, as long as they have the skills we’re looking for.

    Some of the roles do require a specific location due to onsite duties. And a few are based internationally, but often remote within the country of interest.

    From what I’ve heard, I don’t believe we’re low balling anyone with offers. There is a regional sliding scale of salary based on cost of living, which could change the offer by 5-10% between a HCOL and a LCOL market.

    1. I'm A Little Teapot*

      If you’re living in podunk Indiana vs San Francisco, the cost of living difference is more than 10%.

      If you’re having trouble hiring, then pretty good chance the pay is part of the problem.

      2. BabyElephantWalk*

        Yep. You might not believe the pay is part of the problem, but you’d be easily filling vacancies (especially remote ones!) if it weren’t.

    3. frockbot*

      Are you guys open to stretch applications, or mostly looking for folks with experience in the field? I do some marketing stuff for my current position, for instance, and would be interested in looking at a role like the one you described, but I’m not a marketing person per se…

    4. Anon in Ohio*

      5-10% doesn’t seem like that much between HCOL and LCOL places though. I’m based in a fairly LCOL city right now, and I would need more like 25-30% to move to a HCOL city

    5. DC*

      I’d love to apply based on what you’re saying. Not sure if Alison will let you post where it is.

    6. Fran Fine*

      This sounds a lot like my company and their marketing team’s current recruitment woes. I’m not privy to their pay scale (I really wish my company was more transparent with this information across the board), but I think part of their problem is they’re using outdated job titles for the roles they’re trying to fill, which leads to a lack of submissions. They also have a super long list of responsibilities with no salary range posted, which puts people off, and they’re also not willing to budge on their requirements because they don’t have the bandwidth to train anyone – they need people to come in and be productive almost from Day 1 (which really isn’t realistic).

      They’re having to hire applicants they’re less than enthused about, and it’ll be interesting to see how it goes this year – they have started posting more reqs already worldwide. I’m curious if they’ll take the advice I gave them to be a bit more flexible on requirements and years of experience and whether that’ll make a difference.

    7. Parakeet*

      I’m on both sides of this process. I’m casually searching (and happen to be suddenly in the interview process for two different positions that are both in the “there’s no such thing as a dream job but this is about as close as you can get” category). My organization is also understaffed and has been trying to hire a teammate for me (when fully staffed our team is three people – a supervisor and two reports) for more than six months.

      On the applicant side, the jobs I’m applying to are mostly really niche, so it’s hard to tell what “the market” looks like and I’m not sure what normal would be. I had a long and disappointing mostly-dry (one first-round interview after which I got ghosted) spell for a while, before suddenly being in the interview process for these two different roles that I had been hoping against hope would open.

      On the hiring side…like some other commenters, we’re limited in what we can pay because we’re a nonprofit with mostly government funding and the state government has a set rate that it will reimburse for certain positions’ salaries, with any higher pay that that having to come from other funds that we’re not exactly drowning in. We already pay above average (and recently got raises), for our (rather notoriously poorly-paid) sector in this high-COL area, with above-average benefits and an excellent “taking the pandemic seriously” track record. Exact salary (not a range) is listed in the job posting. But we’ve had very few applicants – above average in a poorly-paid sector still isn’t good pay. It’s an area of direct service human services with (I’m being a little vague here to avoid being traceable) a high potential for vicarious trauma and burnout.

      While the role has a number of preferred skills, we do train new people pretty extensively, no experience in the field is required, and there is only one skill (a language skill) that is absolutely 100% you-will-not-be-considered-without-this required. We’re very clear about this in the posting, and yet the majority of the few applicants still haven’t had that one skill. I think it’s also tricky because we serve a minoritized population that is underserved in the mainstream orgs in this area of human services, and it’s rare that we get applicants for any opening who AREN’T themselves part of that minoritized population – so in practice the pool of likely applicants is smaller to begin with.

      That said, I think we bear some responsibility too. I had to lobby to get the position posted on Idealist, and it took months and my supervisor’s backing to make that happen, because there’s a perception among leadership that most applicants that found us on big job boards in the past were unqualified and therefore it’s not worth the money. So we normally rely largely on staff’s and vols’ social and professional networks, and our social media accounts (we are not a large org and it’s not like we have tens of thousands of followers on these platforms) to generate applicants. It just wasn’t cutting it. Since we finally posted on Idealist, we’ve had as many applicants (still not many) as in the previous several months combined, and two of them have the one skill we can’t be flexible on, and seem like they might be generally okay candidates, so we may have someone soon!

    8. Anon Midwesterner*

      Sorry I missed these replies yesterday!

      Our pay scale is based in California (it’s a silicon valley company) so I believe we actually “overpay” or are generous in LCOL markets. I have a newish coworker who confidentially shared with me that this was a 50% pay jump for her, compared to her previous job in her local area.

      Unfortunately I cannot share the company name but all the remote marketing jobs are posted nationally in the US on typical sites like Glassdoor!

  24. farrisonhord*

    There was one company I always wanted to work for (they’re the largest in a field adjacent to mine and usually have a decent reputation) and I applied to them dozens of times over the past 7-8 years with no luck. I had a handful of getting to the final interview instances but not having the right experience or enough experience. This year I applied, got selected for two different positions on their team, and when they made their offer they reclassified the position to a higher level so I wouldn’t have to take a pay-cut. I still have the same kind of relevant but not totally direct experience as I did when I applied before. In my field at least it feels like everyone is playing an epic game of shuffle for better pay and higher titles.

  25. HolidayAmoeba*

    I work HR and we are seeing lower numbers of applications to positions than usual right now and a lot more people with stretch applications. But we are still hiring at a decent clip and seeing usual turnover, though higher than usual numbers of people retiring.

    1. Not So NewReader*

      A friend is working a lower level government job. She is retiring at 62. She’s had enough. It’s a shame because she has a lot of good years left. We are wasting valuable human resources left and right. I am sure she will move on to find herself a nice paying part time job somewhere with a sane workload and decent cohorts.

    2. Oat Milk Market*

      Entry-level or experienced roles? I’m looking to make the leap into HR but can’t seem to find anything entry-level.

    3. NotAnotherManager!*

      I just spoke with HR about a position I’m opening, and my in-house recruiter said the same thing. She said the one that surprised her was the dearth of applicants for entry-level positions (truly entry-level, zero experience required, training offered). We pay well and have excellent PTO and benefits, including fully paid parental leave and company contribution to retirement. We also detail our COVID policies and protocols (still not back in the office, vaccines required, top-of-the-line air filtrations system) and hybrid work options.

      For experienced positions, we’re having to go straight to headhunters (expensive) and direct messaging on LinkedIn, and it’s still taking a long time to fill positions. And I have really good in-house recruiters and we don’t use ATS screening/automated rejection at all.

      1. BabyElephantWalk*

        Your HR might want to reconsider the pay. An employer saying “we pay well” and the application/worker experience with that can be vastly different. If you can’t find true entry level people at the pay you’re posting, then you are likely not as competitive as you think you are. (And even if you pay well for the field – where else are the same candidates likely looking? Adjacent fields or experiences may pay better).

  26. Indie*

    Back in October my contract was cancelled. One week later I had 3 interviews and 2 offers. I live in Montreal and work in IT, so I might be an outlier. I am still getting slammed with interview invitations even after updating my LinkedIn.

  27. Snarkus Aurelius*

    I work for a public health government agency so I’m DESPERATE to hire. I’m hiring three positions at the same time, which is frying my brain.

    I get that’s not really noteworthy but here’s what is:

    I made official budget requests for more positions because of the workload and demands, and I was denied (can’t say who but not within my agency.)

    Public officials need to stop complaining about how unprepared we are for COVID-19 and the next pandemic then. I will not be overworking my staff because a bunch of public officials think public health is a waste of money but oh can you do more with what you have? No I can’t and I won’t.

    1. Anon for this*

      No I can’t and I won’t- good for you. If decision-makers come out of Covid continuing to allocate shoestring budgets to this vitally important work, something is very wrong. Look at nurses leaving the field in droves – can’t replace them fast enough.

      1. Snarkus Aurelius*

        Ugh thank you. I’m tired of watching them beat their chests at a press conference and then turning around and asking me to do more because their supporters don’t want to spend tax dollars but they do want to know where to get tested!

    2. memyselfandi*

      I left my role in state public health in August of this year. Had been planning by exit for the spring of 2020, and then…. My observation is that all the millions of dollars that has been poured into “public health” is not going into public health personnel. It is going to tech companies to build the reporting and tracking systems that we lacked due to the neglect of public health infrastructure for decades. When the pandemic hit my state we did not have software for collecting information on infections (despite our Infectious Disease unit begging for something for years in advance of the pandemic) and everything had to be built from scratch. Some of the money has been trickling down to the local level and I have gotten some calls from my network about opportunities. Salaries are not everything to me but what we pay people is how we demonstrate how we value them in our society. they have come up a bit, but not as much as they should. My reasons for leaving had to with poor management. I loved my job and had intended to retire from it.

  28. Ori*

    I’m seeing a *lot* of companies listing roles as remote, but when you visit their website / download the application it’s actually hybrid. I wish they’d stop wasting everybody’s time by doing this.

      1. Miss Fisher*

        There are reasons for that though. Depending on where you are located, the company might not be registered to do business in that state. since you would list your location as your place of employment address there are tax legal issues involved. Its the same where I work. You can live remote, but you have to live in a state where they are registered.

        1. Dancing Otter*

          Agreed. I live in a corner, where it’s really common for people to live here and take a job in state X or Y instead. For on site jobs, the company was fine legally. The tax issues, though.
          Twice, I saw family members really get screwed over on state income taxes. Their employers withheld taxes for the wrong state; taxpayer had to file with state X to get a refund and got hit with penalties from their home state for underpayment.
          This was totally unnecessary on the employer’s side. I worked payroll many years ago, and we withheld state X taxes for employees from X and state Y taxes for employees from Y. Yes, it was more work, but I still believe it was the only decent thing to do. But some companies just don’t want to be bothered.

    2. Many Hats*

      This may be a limitation of the site it’s posted on. Some job boards don’t list hybrid as an option and you can only chose from “One location” “Multiple Locations” or “Remote”
      My company is working from home, but they still ask you be close enough to participate in in person company events that may happen in the future. Regionally remote, maybe? That sort of stipulation isn’t an option on a job board’s drop down menu.

      1. Can't pass again...*

        Agree- my firm posts remote eligible positions as all of our office locations and “Open to location.”

      2. Ori*

        Sure, but in that case they should default to the regional office’s location. Nothing against what your company are asking for (it sounds lovely actually), just a bit tired of seeing ‘Remote’ vacancies that actually require you to be in London 3 days a week. (I usually search my area + remote).

    3. gnomic heresy*

      Same! Especially when there’s no clear logistical reason for why.
      I get that some companies can only hire in their own state for legal reasons (or a small set of states). But when it’s otherwise clear that that doesn’t apply, it’s frustrating.

      1. Ori*

        Definitely! Some, as you say, make perfect sense, especially if you’re delivering training or fundraising. But otherwise it’s just so disheartening.

      2. Ray Gillette*

        Also, some states are large! “Must reside in Texas for tax reasons” is much broader than “must reside in the Houston metro area and be ready to commute into the office at a moment’s notice.”

        1. Ori*

          Exactly! I live in a county where a commute to one city is 20-40 minutes. Due to infrastructure the next one over takes two hours and if on the train, a connection.

        2. LinuxSystemsGuy*

          We almost had to let one of my indirect reports go because he moved from Massachusetts to Rhode Island. I haven’t heard anything about in a few weeks, so I guess they must have fixed it (I’m not his actual boss, so I get everything second hand), but it’s crazy. Our Boston based non-profit apparently didn’t have anything setup for people to live in Rhode Island, like 90 minutes from the office. To be clear, his new house is geographically closer to our office than he’d been before (his job was hybrid even before the pandemic, so he didn’t mind the commute a couple days a week )

    4. Beancat*

      This! Nearly every “remote” role I find is actually temporarily remote, or hybrid in an area far from me (we’re not looking to relocate). There might be limits to the job boards themselves, but I wish they could find a way to say it up-front before I even click on a “remote” job.

      1. Ori*

        Same, my partner has a job he loves, so we don’t want to relocate. But where we live, the shortest commute I’ve ever had was 40 minutes each way. Remote would be perfect – I wouldn’t mind going in occasionally but I feel like i’ve spent half my life on trains / roads.

      2. MissBaudelaire*

        I’ve seen many listed as ‘remote’ but when you read the description it says THIS IS NOT A REMOTE JOB.

      3. Me!*

        I’m totally looking to relocate and I can start remotely if they need me to. I’ve been saying that in cover letters. Hybrid is acceptable if they require vaccination and have decent protocols, but I literally cannot find housing without a job!

        1. DJ Abbott*

          Confirming- I moved in 2021 without a job and my landlord did not consider unemployment compensation to be income. I had to ask a relative to cosign my lease before they would rent to me.

    5. Mezzo*

      Yes! This is making me crazy. I was referred by a high-level contact for a job that I’m 100 percent qualified for (digital marketing in healthcare), which was initially advertised as remote. The position was one of four similar roles that the company desperately needs filled yesterday, and the recruitment was being handled by a senior HR executive.

      I never even got called for an interview. According to my contact, the senior HR executive and the VP of the department that needs the new people were overruled by a C-level executive who “doesn’t believe” in remote or hybrid work. Said C-level exec would rather have the positions go unfilled, even if that means his company’s revenue tanks for more than a quarter.

      1. Ori*

        Especially silly given that digital marketing can easily be done from home. Apart from occasional internal / client meetings (which can be handled online) there’s no reason for you to be there.

    6. Cantelope*

      I’ve seen this too. Or it’s listed as “remote” but then the full job description says it’s only temporarily remote and eventually will be full-time in office on the other side of the country.

      1. Ori*

        Yep. I have a vacancy bookmarked where I really need to call them because their location is really ambiguous.

      2. No Longer Gig-less Data Analyst*

        A recruiter contact of mine on LinkedIn was complaining that even though the position he was hiring for was listed as remote, applicants kept asking if this was a remote, hybrid or in-person job. He was asking if he should ditch those applicants immediately as they “obviously don’t have an eye for detail.”

        I was more than happy to inform him that the bait-and-switch on remote jobs is a HUGE issue for job seekers these days. He was surprised since he genuinely would never list a role as remote unless it was, and didn’t seem to understand that this was a problem in his industry. Several others piled on, so I hope he has a much more empathetic and realistic view of what potential candidates are struggling with.

          1. Not So NewReader*

            Ditto from me. Thank your friend for having ethics and just keep reminding him that not every employer is so ethical.

    7. Cold Fish*

      Or better yet. They are listed remote but only temporarily remote and then will require in person. If the job is not intended to be remote, don’t advertise it as remote, you are not looking for remote workers.

    8. Junior Assistant Peon*

      I see a lot of another bait-and-switch: the job is posted in my city. and when you click on the link, the ad mentions “Relocation to Houston” or wherever. I’m tempted to apply to these just to waste their time.

      2. Anon for this*

        Ewwww.

        I’ve occasionally had recruiters reach out to me. They don’t seem very helpful yet, because a lot of what I do is stuff that’s done by directors and I’m looking to be promoted into a team lead role, but I’ve told each of them I have no desire to move to Texas, ever. So far they’ve been accepting of this.

      3. pancakes*

        That would be a waste of your time as well, and with no results. Why not report them to the site operator? It isn’t in their interest to be known for misleading ads and they probably have a policy against that.

    9. Lizy*

      Absolutely this. The post also needs to let people know WHERE they can be remote from. As a job-searcher, I don’t want to waste time applying for AwesomeJob only to find out later it’s remote only for people in Arizona, and I’m in Wisconsin (or whatever). I actively searched other openings with companies that said “this position is remote in X state”, because they were actually saying what they wanted.

    10. Jaybee*

      Same. When I was job-searching I had several companies I applied for, reach out and ask which of their office locations I would be working in.

      Well, your nearest location is a two hour drive away, so: none of them. I applied because you have it set as a ‘fully remote’ job, so it comes up when I search for local jobs! I wasn’t even looking necessarily for a 100% remote position (just open to it).

  29. Not a Real Giraffe*

    I’ve been casually searching since November. I’m seeing a lot of job postings in my field but am being picky about what I apply to and have decided that, unless it’s a role that requires it or that I think needs me to clarify why I’m a good fit, I am not wasting my time on crafting cover letters. I’ve been invited to interview for about 30% of the roles I’ve applied for, including all the ones I was most interested in (none of which I wrote cover letters for).

    I am finding that employers are not balking at my salary requirements, which are lofty becuase I like my job and I’m content to stay unless the offer is really amazing. I’m in the final rounds with one firm, so should know within the next week or two if we’ve just wasted each others’ time (they were cagey about the salary range when I initially asked).

  30. the Viking Diva*

    I’m hiring a researcher with an advanced degree, OK to work remotely. I thought I’d get flooded with applicants, as the ad offered a remote work option. In fact I had fewer applicants than usual but should be able to make a good hire from this pool.

    1. Dr. Rebecca*

      I’m looking for/applying for this work–PhD, 8 solid years qual and quant research experience, mixed methods–and can’t get a call back.

        1. A Wall*

          Third’d. I’ve had luck applying to research roles that demand you work in-person (and pay too little to afford rent by yourself, as per usual) but I want a remote role and not a single remote job I’ve applied to has ever contacted me back.

  31. bluephone*

    The local chains around me–CVS, Starbucks, etc– are always crying about how they don’t have enough staff, they’re hiring, they can’t stay open because there’s no staff, whine whine whine…but when you apply, you either get radio silence or told to piss off. So the alligator tears are really just for clickbait headlines and Faux News reports about “lazy people would rather get COVID unemployment checks* than work”

    (*no longer a thing)

    1. Jax*

      My 16 year old daughter applied to Target to work part-time, evenings and weekends, and received a rejection less than 24 hours later. My assumption is that Target managers are used to hiring “open availability” part-time applicants and would rather not deal with minors and their restrictions. If so, it may take until spring before retail/service industries realize that they need to cobble together part-time schedules with the candidates available, or suck it up and offer more full-time roles (with benefits) to bridge the coverage.

      1. Junior Assistant Peon*

        When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, the only adult in a pizzeria or fast-food joint was the manager, and everyone else working there was a teenager. Now fast-food and retail companies are whining that they can’t get workers, but they won’t consider anyone under 18 for a crappy part-time minimum-wage job that never should have become a career job for adults.

        1. Chirpy*

          You know, people say these jobs were “supposed to be for teenagers” but who do you think works them during school hours? Some people only see the teenagers working nights and weekends because they only go to these places nights and weekends instead of seeing the adults who have always been there during the day.

      2. Isben Takes Tea*

        This would be my hunch as well. Back when I was applying for part-time retail work several years ago, I got turned down by people who otherwise really wanted to hire me because their policy was not to take anyone with schedule restrictions. A lot of chains required part-timers to be available at all times (depending on the week), but refused to give you a steady schedule or full time work. It is unreasonable and wrong.

        1. Four Calling Birds*

          In my area, the “full time availability for part time work” thing is as much of an issue in my job search as the low pay across the board. It’s awful!

    2. Fran Fine*

      The same thing happened during the Great Recession. When I graduated in 2009 and couldn’t find a career job to save my life, I applied to every fast food/retail spot in my area and heard crickets (and I had some food service experience from college!). You would think these places would have learned from that recent experience, but I guess not.

    3. Saraaaaah*

      Yeah my partner recently put in some applications at a bunch of Starbucks in the area for a part time thing to balance school and has gotten no interest.

  32. dawbs*

    I work in a low-paying sector of the educational nonprofit world and we’re finding it impossible to replace staff…
    But, honestly, I think that’s our fault–or our budget’s.

    My company has done as much as they can for employees throughout (paid to work from home when we can, keeping people on, cognizant of time and resources, flexibility, best precautions we can take)–they are a pretty amazing place for alllllll of those things. Like amazingly awesome.

    But our work requires (really requires, not ‘because we say so requires’) in person people. And people who are looking for work are seeming to really struggle to work for us (as amazing as we are) in a ‘high risk pandemic, working with unvaxed populations’ for less than they’d start off currently in fast food–and I don’t blame them; I’m considering picking up subbing jobs and side hustles and applying elsewhere because all the other perks in the world don’t pay my housepayments and it irks me that it’s still so much seen as ‘hobby job’ that pays (women, mostly. It loosely falls into ‘care work’) crap.

    1. JSPA*

      It also falls into, “people cut too much slack to companies who make promises they can’t keep.” If you’re Theranos, that’s, “the technology works, just throw money at us.” If it’s an educational nonprofit, that’s, “we can provide high quality in-person services without paying a minimally reasonable salary.” These are both lies.

      No matter how much we want to make a diagnosis based on a single drop of blood, and no matter how needy the population receiving educational services, the ripples of those lies reach far and wide. Finding a ready audience among the many people who want to believe that such things are possible, puffery from companies that run on magical thinking, guilt and magical accounting crater the public will to fund things properly.

      Like any other company that runs on wishes, chewing gum, and the suffering of their employees, unsustainable nonprofits should go under, if they can’t reform themselves to pay a decent wage.

    2. HigherEd-staycation*

      Non-profit/public health – budgets are huge barriers. They want all kinds of things, public-facing, workload for little pay. So many staff are burnt out and leaving the industry- people who have been in it for years are finally fed up and know they can’t find anything that will pay enough in the sector, so they are going elsewhere.
      The “mission” of any non-profit is becoming harder to love when you’re exhausted and not paid enough to pay the bills or save money.

      1. anon for this*

        This is something I’ve been discussing a lot as a nonprofit, department head level employee. I think a lot of us in the nonprofit/medical research sector are very aware we can’t continue underpaying and overworking people as much as we have been if we’re going to keep high quality employees, and yet there are some really strange entrenched ideas about hiring for nonprofits somehow needing to be “not about money.”

        I’m lucky in that my org is one of the better ones when it comes to understanding that strong employees are worth the money — once you are in the organization and have proven to be a strong employee. When it comes to hiring they still play strange head games (they absolutely REFUSE to let us post salary in job positions, even though many of us have been pointing out that it may be causing good candidates to self-select out because they assume we’re going to underpay if we don’t list salary).

      2. MissBaudelaire*

        I can love a mission and really believe in the cause all I want, but if I can’t pay my rent I can’t. I can’t afford to work for the joy of it. I wish I could, that’s just not a reality in my world. I’m sure there are people who can and do. I don’t know any of them.

        1. emmelemm*

          Right? Like, I’d love to serve this mission, but if I become homeless because I can’t pay the rent, then I’m the one who needs services!! It’s a vicious cycle! Or circle, whichever!

    3. ECE Policy Wonk*

      Sounds like you’re in an Early Childhood direct service role. I feel for you right now. It was hard when I did it 20 years ago, and I can’t imagine how hard it is now. Hiring and retention is just abysmal in ECE right now.

      On the other hand, there’s a veritiable smorgasbord of funding coming down the pike, the nation has never seen a call for ECE like we have since the pandemic, and if BBB passes, then there will *finally* be some pay parity between the private & public sectors.

      ECE is hiring like mad in the classroom and at the policy level, but in-between there is slim pickings.

  33. JustaTech*

    In my industry (biotech, specifically cell therapy) I keep hearing and seeing that there is a desperate need for trained employees (this is a new and specialized field and there isn’t really ‘school’ for it yet). My company complains that our best folks get poached (not hard since other companies don’t have to run on the night shift), and the companies that get employees from us complain that they’re have folks poached too!

    I know that in my department we’ve been trying to hire some specialized positions forever, and at least some interviews have happened, but the interviewees turn the jobs down because we’re not paying anything like what our closest (job type and physically) competitor is paying. Since everyone in our department knows this, no one I’ve talked to seems to know why we aren’t offering market rate.

    1. Mia*

      This is interesting to me, as biotech, and specifically cell work, is the field my high school senior is planning to get into. Finding a college that offers this program wasn’t easy, and it’s even harder to find specific info about careers within the industry. In your view, what would qualify as a “trained” professional employee? Lab skills, the science understanding, something else, a combination? Thanks for answering if you can!

      1. Another biotech worker*

        The best approach is probably a general bio degree (focus on cell or molecular bio if possible) but make sure the university has someone doing work in cell therapy and try to get a position in the lab doing undergrad research. (If that’s not possible, any position in the lab would be good especially because once you get your foot in the door, you’ll likely be the first to get further opportunities). But ultimately be aware that with only a bachelor’s, there will be limits to the positions available and they are very exacting/stressful work. This is definitely a field where following up with a PhD will likely be necessary to advance beyond entry level.

      2. Lora*

        Am director level in biotech, if this helps:

        -You don’t actually need your degree to say “Biotech”. Biology, biochemistry, chemistry, chemical engineering, are all perfectly fine and will cover the waterfront. We have some clinical lab and robotics/automation people too.

        -There are a LOT of sub-fields within the field, and while some are fairly niche others can be moved between. Strongly recommend that early after graduation, a first or second job should have a cGMP component. This is not something taught in schools at all, must be learned on the job, but once you have that experience it’s a HUGE boost to your resume for the next few decades. These roles are often available in operations type departments (manufacturing, clinical tech ops, engineering, Quality). If kid decides cGMP sucks out loud (many people do), they can certainly find work in other departments.

        -Which of the sub-fields your kid ends up deciding they excel in or really enjoy, is actually something of a crapshoot. A ton of people get the STEM degree and then decide they hate pipetting and go into Quality because it pays well; on the other hand, you basically can’t have any work friends if you work in QA/Compliance. Some people decide they would rather be a computer programmer than wear a Tyvek bunny suit all day and go into Automation, but then find out they hate the emergency call-outs. It’s really just on your kid and what they find they like when they start doing this stuff in real life. There is a nontrivial amount of training to move between these sub-fields, but it can be done – you’re just looking at another 1.5 – 2 years of schooling if you make a major switch, but others are much easier.

        -An advanced degree of some sort is pretty much required. Master’s of whatever is fine for most roles, MBA is also considered acceptable for certain departments, a PhD is mainly required for advanced Discovery roles only. For Discovery roles in particular: the graduate school must be a name brand school (Ivy, near-Ivy or top of its field program) and the research must be focused on something the company is actively pursuing. An industrial postdoc or a postdoc from someone the Discovery group PI knows personally is also usually required, so if this is something you want to do, you need to look VERY carefully at advisors who are well-connected to industry in particular. Also bear in mind that Discovery, while considered very elite, is also first to be laid off in recessions and last to be re-hired, and also pays probably the worst considering the amount of schooling they require. Everyone wants to cure cancer, nobody wants to audit batch records.

        -The places where there are jobs are Boston, San Francisco, a little bit outside Philadelphia, Singapore, the Rockland MD – DC corridor, RTP North Carolina, Munich, Milan, Basel and…that’s pretty much it. There *exist* jobs in other places, but they don’t pay nearly as much even relative to the cost of living and if you’re laid off or your boss sucks, it’s much harder to find another job in the field. Strongly suggest relocating to one of those places after college when possible. Quality of life is much MUCH better in those hubs, than it is trying to find something at one or two small companies / startups elsewhere.

        1. Mia*

          Thank you both SO MUCH for this info! Luckily, the largest university in our state does offer this degree and that is where he is headed, and I’ve already had the “lots of adjacent fields” chat with him. As for employment, the mom in me is excited that the largest university in our city recently announced a massive investment/redevelopment project focused solely on this field and type of work, so hopefully coming “home” will be an option, eventually if not immediately.

        2. JustaTech*

          Also Seattle, SoCal (San Diego is really picking up) and Atlanta.
          Sadly, aside from maybe Atlanta none of these places are cheap to live.

          You know what’s really fun? Auditing batch records *while* curing cancer! And then spending a week fixing the microfiche reader because that’s the only place that one report was stored. Yay development.

        3. WhatAMaroon*

          Will also add biotech has a presence in San Diego (source: is my husband’s job) but it’s more so manufacturing plant specific opportunities

      3. JustaTech*

        I guess my question is does your kid want a good paying manufacturing career, or do they want an R&D career? Because they’re pretty different on an educational requirement front (not that people from biotech manufacturing *can’t* move over to R&D, but it’s harder).

        Because the field is so new “trained” just means lab experience and an understanding of the general principles, and a strong willingness to learn on the job. Oh, and excellent fine motors skills (not 100% necessary but very beneficial) and good balance. (Like, literal balance, if you work in a clean room you have to be able to stand on one foot long enough to put on a sterile sock.)

        At my company the manufacturing folk generally have an AA or BA/BS, while the Quality and R&D folk are more likely to have advanced degrees (though I don’t have a PhD, and my master’s is tangential).

        Other than that it’s about the usual stuff in science, attention to detail (at least in the immediate work, my ADHD hasn’t been an issue), ability to pay very close attention to incredibly repetitive stuff (I’ve probably run the same assay a thousand times, but I have to pay attention every time), legible handwriting (though this is going away) and the ability to balance curiosity with regulations. (Oh, and take statistics! It will get you so far if you know how and why and when and which statistics to use.)

        Academia is exciting and new, industry pays and gets the big toys.

        And super congrats to your senior for having such a specific career goal before college! I just kind of blundered into this field (I was going to do astrophysics), but it would have been easier if I’d planned a little more. Good luck!

    2. Gary Patterson's Cat*

      In a new field like this with relatively few trained professionals you’re simply going to have to pay more or go without. Probably there isn’t even lower-level techs who can be trained to do the work yet. The only way I see you even getting grad students is if the job fully pays for the education while working the job. Otherwise, people who have graduated can make more money elsewhere.

      I’m old enough to remember the early days of the internet when a web developer or designer could make a six-figure salary because very few people knew how to create a website. Now, it’s a fairly low-to-mid level position because it’s quite easy to make a website.

  34. Goldie*

    I’m at the top end of middle management in a creative field, and my next step is VP or above—those jobs are rare. I do see some jobs out there that have my title and responsibilities, but offer half of my salary (or less). I also see jobs for which my resume checks literally 95% of the boxes for, and I can’t get HR/hiring contact to return an email (even after an intro/referral from someone else within the company). I think that if you’re a more junior or truly mid level person, there are a TON of opportunities out there.

  35. ER*

    I’m job searching to make a lateral-downward move within the data space, from senior data scientist to more of an early- to mid-level data engineer. I’m currently in the interview process for 5 roles and interviewed for and was rejected from two other roles (damn live coding interviews and my nerves!), but I think this is maybe only a little bit more than average and isn’t exceptionally unusual. In early 2021 I was applying for data science roles and was also getting a substantial number of call-backs so I think to some degree it’s just the space having a lot of growth. That said, I’ve heard from recruiters that pretty much everyone they’re speaking to is in interview processes at multiple places (one even said she’d be confused if someone wasn’t) so I think there’s some truth to it being easier right now. I’m grateful for that, because a lateral shift can otherwise be a harder sell.

    However, more establish tech firms (not just FAANG but other big ones like Spotify, Atlassian, etc.) can still be difficult to get into. The data engineering interviews I’ve gotten are mostly at smaller companies with concomitant lower pay, though if I had wanted to stay in data science I would be more likely to get interviews at bigger tech places who generally are hiring for more experience. With data engineering, though, it’s largely about getting a foot in the door and having the title so I’ll take lower pay (to a point) at a smaller company in exchange for the experience.

      1. ER*

        I’m assuming you’re also in the data space, then? If so, definitely stick it out for the bigger firms if you can wait and want to work at them! I just had three former coworkers land jobs at Meta, Google, and Apple in mid- to senior-level data science roles. I expanded my search more quickly in part because I’m trying to switch over to the engineering side and in part because my current situation is not tenable so I’m hoping to leave sooner than later (though I’m still making sure to be picky enough that I land somewhere I can really learn and grow in and that has the kind of tech stack to make that possible).

        1. J.B.*

          I’m more in data engineering (in a very small and super specialized place) and am currently doing more management of projects and people than I would prefer. Because people see my resume and see that specialization, I’ll probably need to move to a similarity small but hopefully less specialized place first.

    2. ER*

      One thing I will add is that it has been MUCH easier this time around to get salary information. Part of it is that more places are listing the salary in the job description (largely because they’re remote jobs that can be done from Colorado, which requires salary information in job listings – thank you, Colorado!) and part of it is that when I gently request salary information from the company before providing my own range, all but one place has been quick to give me the information. The data space is rife with insane pay differences – I’m currently interviewing for a place offering $140-160k and one offering $90-100k – so for me, it’s critical to get that information upfront. I’ve felt more at an advantage when asking for that information that I have during previous job searches.

      1. Fashion Show at Lunch!*

        I’m based in Colorado, and in my recent job search, I did come across a few postings for remote jobs that said “This job can be performed in any state except Colorado” — presumably so they didn’t have to list salary information. I was like, “If you’re that committed to being opaque about salary information, presumably so you can continue underpaying people, then I don’t want to work for you anyway.”

    3. this is ka*

      Data science advice please! My husband has just decided to make the switch from teaching to data science. He has a PhD in mathematics and is giving up on finding a tenured position (he wasn’t willing to leave our very desirable living location to truly pursue an academic career, so the options are quite limited). He’s just started doing some self-teaching through online courses to learn python and other coding, databases, etc (forgive my ignorance, it’s not my field). What would you recommend to someone like him as far as how long to spend trying to self-learn the coding side of things before pursuing data science positions. He’s been hoping that his PhD will give him the boost he needs to get into the field without becoming a coding expert first.

      1. ER*

        Hi! It varies so much given how broad and nebulous the field has become. Given his PhD, I’m assuming he’s more interested in going the ML-route and in general would aim for more stats- and methods-heavy data science roles? I have seen my fair share of data science jobs that prefer math/stats PhDs, so that gives him a leg up for those, but they are a more narrow subset of job openings (granted, a narrow subset that often pays quite well). They’re also the type of roles that are generally going to be more mid- to senior-level, which does require being able to show some experience on actual implementation, coding, version control and other best practices, so he should try to get a well-rounded foundation that includes that.

        It’s great that he’s learning Python (focus on pandas, numpy, scikitlearn, etc., and learn SQL in some basic capacity, too) and he’ll likely need to get comfortable enough to pass a live coding interview. A green flag for a company is when their live coding is looking for someone who can understand and explain how they’d implement something rather than someone who’s memorized which library does which thing, a red flag is if they prioritize the latter. So in that sense, getting enough experience to be able to generalize a problem and turn it into a function will be helpful (e.g., write a function that tells you whether any two numbers in a given list can add up to a given value). Apart from coding, though, a big thing is that there’s a huge difference in the skillset of someone who has just coded alone on their own vs. someone who has coded in a professional environment, so the closer he can get to closing that gap (and being able to show it to an interviewer), the better. This includes learning version control (use GitHub, it’s free, and make sure to add it to the resume as a skill), being able to speak to best practices when building out reproducible and production-level code, and understanding the types of business problems the place he’s applying to may need to answer (e.g., if looking at product data science roles, be able to speak to defining user activation metrics or how he would go about designing an A/B test for evaluating a product’s performance).

        Interviews will also involve behavioral questions along the lines of “tell me about a time when you…[impacted business decisions using data, had to handle questionable data quality, etc.]” so he’ll also need to make sure that any side projects he’s done have been in-depth enough that he can use them to answer those types of questions, and then also add in, e.g., “if I had done this in a professional capacity on a team in a production environment, I would have also taken into account X, Y, and Z” to show that he understand what’s needed.

        This is more than you asked for, but in short – he won’t necessarily need to be a coding expert, but to use his PhD he’ll need to aim for mid-level data science roles (and I think he should – don’t go for entry level ones even without experience coding in the workplace, as those are for people who are new to all of it and he clearly is not new to the methods component and I think that can take him quite far) he’ll need to have a solid enough grasp of Python to pass a coding interview and he’ll want to have a decent grasp of everything else that goes along with productionalizing code in a professional environment. Also, as someone who has hired data scientists, I would recommend including a short 1-2 sentence explaining his pivot to data science at the top of his resume because hoo boy do people not read cover letters.

        One last thing: he should start reading job descriptions NOW for the types of roles he’s interested in, and make note of the tools they mention. Don’t learn all of them – that’s not needed – but understand what they’re used for and when they’re used, and try to get experience with the tools that seem to show up in every job description. Also take note of what the responsibilities of the jobs are and what problems the role will solve and see if he can come up with projects to answer similar types of questions even if it’s on his own with an already generated dataset.

        1. this is ka*

          Thank you SO VERY MUCH! Your advice on what to expect in an interview and how to prepare will be invaluable to him. He has already been looking at job descriptions to identify the most commonly requested tools he should learn or be familiar with, and has spoken to a couple of friends who work in data science, but being prepped for an interview – especially as someone with a fair amount of anxiety who hasn’t worked in a corporate environment before – will be a big challenge for him. So having that advice is really really great. I’m so excited that he’s decided to make this change and feel like once he gets through the roughness of the transition, he’ll be so much happier. Thanks again for taking the time to respond so thoroughly!

    4. Katt*

      This is mildly off-topic, but is it roles in the data space in general that are difficult to get? I’m not currently looking to leave where I’m at, but I hear that there’s a huge need for data specialists. I personally am currently working in a data analysis role which I’m happy with and I’m not so much interested in the data engineering side of things, but I am wondering!

  36. I've Escaped Cubicle Land*

    My boss does interviewing for a state department. Our wages are below industry norm but not horribly below and the benefits are supposed to make up the difference. He’s mentioned an increase in lack of applicants, no shows at interviews, people turning down the job offers etc. Most of the positions are for call center or entry level admin jobs. Foot in the door type jobs so often new hirers end up taking a better position once in and the original job ends up serial reposting. They have started making more positions fully work from home to have a wider pond to fish for new hires from. But the ones that have to be on site are having a harder time finding employees.

    1. Danish*

      I think the general burnout and disillusion of the pandemic applies here too – “foot in the door” jobs don’t sound appealing currently, because we’re all very used to a bait and switch, or the entire company and it’s door changing out from under you, or the company deciding that your new job is “door stop”. There’s almost no incentive to hold out for eventual, theoretical advancement because so few people have seen that actually come to pass for them.

  37. Green Post Its*

    Sadly I think this won’t be very informative unless people are willing to say what industry they’re in and where in the world they are.

    I’m in HE in the UK, but my employer has had poor student recruitment so we’re no recruiting as strongly for most academic and professional staff.

    1. mlem*

      Yeah, I’d really love to see field, region/area, and remote-or-hybrid-or-in-person for people hiring and especially for people looking. I think that might be informative.

    2. HigherEd-staycation*

      I’m also in HE and we have seen a downturn in candidates, but that is mostly due to historically low salaries in the industry and lately in the institution that I work for.

      1. borkdrive*

        Also HE in the UK and having a lot of trouble attracting candidates at all but the highest levels. Salary bands have to match existing staff compensation and since there’s been no general uplift to cover higher COL we’re a bit stuck. The uni won’t let us formally offer remote or even partly remote work until they finish a veeeeery long consultation about it.

        Likely Brexit too. We are processing so many more visas for people who could otherwise have started in a couple weeks. The Home Office’s visa application paperwork and 3+ month timeline are not exactly inviting.

        1. Green Post-Its*

          The lack of raise in August 2020 was awful and the paltry 2% or so doesn’t really cut it. I work in HE finance in London so I know how pushed budgets are, but it really makes it hard to attract people when the best candidates for many roles can go to several other prestigous universities where they pay about 10-15% better. Or, indeed, go into private sector.

          Not offering even partly remote working is nuts. I know that a lot of teaching must be done in person – some labs, etc – but most staff have enjoyed WFH and many are doing it whenever their schedules allow.

          I interviewed for professional services roles at about seven London unis this past summer and all of them – without exception – said 2 days in office, 3 days remote as a starting point. This is for a non-student facing, non-helpdesk role though. Anyone who’d required full-time in office work would have been very out of the norm.

  38. iceberry*

    I recently applied for 4 jobs, and got an interview for each one and 3 offers! The candidate pool has been much smaller than in the past.

  39. learnedthehardway*

    From the recruiting side, it’s been crazy this past year – urgent roles all the time, but hiring managers don’t want to compromise on skills or compensation.

    1. Pants*

      A friend of mine is at a staffing agency. They constantly have to tell their clients that the reason they can’t fill the jobs is because the clients are offering a pittance as a salary. The clients tell them to keep looking for people at the same pittance.

      The entire working world has changed, but the people with the money refuse to change with it.

  40. Mezzo*

    Laid off in November, along with my entire team and most of my department, from a huge tech company.

    Interviewed with 11 hiring managers in November and December
    Four positions cancelled (two because the hiring managers resigned)
    Three rejections (one “you’re overqualified,” one because an internal candidate appeared at the 11th hour, one unknown)
    Withdrew three applications after it was clear that the hiring manager or grandboss were micromanagers or vindictive
    Waiting to hear back from the remaining one

    Have applied to over 100 jobs so far. There are literally thousands of openings in my field (marketing for healthcare and tech companies) but lots of churn.

    1. HereKittyKitty*

      I was in the same marketing boat- healthcare and insurance. Whole team laid off in August 2020, spent about 10 months before I was finally hired full time. Applied to 100s of places. Was mostly seeing either entry-level positions or super senior positions that I wasn’t qualified for. The few “middle” positions were highly competitive. In my new job, there’s been a lot of churn in the department. I suspect a big factor in marketing is who is remote permanently and who is not. About a month before each aborted “reopening” we’d have people leaving or moving departments to avoid going back. We’re still fully remote, thankfully, but I think some musical chairs are happening with marketing. There’s a lot of jobs, but everyone is looking for a different seat.

  41. kittymommy*

    I work in government and I haven’t really noticed a big difference. We have the same openings and difficulties we have always had (competing with private pay scales on the higher skilled positions is hard).

    1. FisherCat*

      I wonder if gov jobs will start seeing this more in another 6 months- 1 yr. Given the long hiring timeline for (many, though of course not all) gov jobs I think the trend might take some more time to show itself in that sector.

      Anecdote, but 3 new members of the team I’m on (all ICs) are much less experienced than usual for the position. Wonder if that’s coincidence or the hiring squeeze.

      1. Wintermute*

        I think part of the difference is the government is known for stability, people go there to be stable. In my field in the private sector I have absolutely no stability, but high wages. Employers have little loyalty to employees and employees reciprocate. If what attracted you to your job was the pay, you’ll leave for higher pay, if what attracted you was the stability and pension, you’re not likely to find better easily than some government fields.

  42. Anonymous Knitter*

    My team is desperate to hire, in our case mid-level IT infrastructure people. We’re outside any major tech hubs, so the talent pool locally is relatively shallow. Due to the nature of our work, so we can’t offer work from home and we have a number of inconvenient restrictions even when working in the office (e.g. no cell phones). We used to be the major game in town, but now we’re competing against local employers and remote employers who are offering WFH. So it’s a challenge. We’ve had better luck getting applicants for the non-technical role we have open.

    1. AnonyFed*

      Same situation for my side as a federal contractor. At least the no-cell-phone stuff isn’t full time, but there’s other limitations like all employees must live within 1 hour of the office for response time for emergencies to minimize downtime which limits them to an expensive COL area with a very limited housing supply. It’s looking bleak, especially as we’re looking 5-7 years down the road and realizing there’s a good quarter of our current employees who will be eligible for retirement at that point. We aren’t getting any qualified applicants applying to our mid- and senior level tech jobs and we’re already severely understaffed. Our benefits packages can’t cover the gap between private and public pay anymore, not when the pay gap is hitting 50% for IT and tech jobs.

    2. Wintermute*

      This matches what I’ve seen in our “shallow labor pool” markets at work.

      We actually had to cancel planned layoffs of people left without an office after one closed because our southern data centers can’t hire people fast enough to remain staffed and keep them. In Chicago you can put an add in the newspaper and get experienced people with the exact application experience you need, or network operations experience generally.

      Down in the deep south you’re hiring people with an IT degree or with helpdesk experience and training them in network ops, unfortunately then you’ve suddenly taken someone from 30k a year to 55k a year in salary value with two years of training and if you’re not giving raises/promotions fast enough they’re going to leave for someplace that will pay them that 55k.

  43. Stuck in the Middle*

    In my field, a lot of senior-level people were laid off after the pandemic. Now, only entry-level people are being hired back. I’ve been job-searching to escape my toxic job but I’m senior-level. So, there’s few postings. I took certification classes to enter a quickly growing neighboring field—but that field is only hiring senior-level people! I’m stuck in between the two, worried I’m going to be laid off before I can find another job.

      1. DEJ*

        I was in an adjacent field (public relations in an industry seen as ‘cool’ so the salaries are typically low anyway) and the two-longest tenured people in the office were both laid off and replaced with people hired at $10k less. Marketing and PR took the biggest hits of the layoffs, and a ton of long-tenured people across that ‘cool’ industry were laid off because they could hire back at lower salaries. However, I’ve also heard that the talent pool isn’t nearly what it used to be before the pandemic.

        I ended up getting into a different industry and got a 25% pay raise out of it as well as much more normal hours.

      2. I'm the social scientist you need*

        Search in the San Francisco market — there are TONS AND TONS of UX positions posted here.

    1. HigherEd-staycation*

      But people need to actually make money to decide if the job is worth it. In the times I have looked around casually, having salaries listed helped me not bother since they would not even be able to match what I make now. In some industries (such as HE) it is really hard to get a real feel for what a title means in the big picture and org chart at that Uni.

      From the other side, I have been on enough search committees to have all that time disappear even with a candidate we loved because when we finally gave our salary- they turned it down.

      (HEd)

      1. HigherEd-staycation*

        (by the way, I am agreeing with you, *Cait*, and the above is saying it to whoever wrote the email in the tweet).

    2. AnonEMoose*

      Which is so unrealistic…I want to like my job, but I have never been a person who lives to work. I work to live, and I want to know that I will be appropriately compensated. It’s disingenuous and manipulative to pretend otherwise, if you ask me. And a red flag for an organization that is going to try to obliterate boundaries because the work is just so important.

  45. Bob Dole*

    It might be the industry I’m in, but I started poking my head around just to see what was out there in early December and got a job offer within a week from first phone screen with the desired salary I stated during the recruitment process. I gave my current employer a month’s notice on December 16.

    I think the speed at which they put forth my application probably has to do with lots of jobs going unfulfilled as they still have a load of postings on their LinkedIn, but it was nice to see that they didn’t try to give me the runaround regarding salary and benefits, either. At least in this instance, the notion that employers are desperate is true.

    1. Bob Dole*

      Adding field/area details — I work in the digital advertising industry at the top end of middle management. My current position is based in the Washington, DC area, where it will transition into a hybrid working environment. My new position is headquartered in NY but is 100% remote.

  46. Lady Glittersparkles*

    I recently went through a job search and it was interesting. I received an offer from every interview – one actually called while I was on the way home.
    What some employers were offering is still laughable though. One healthcare agency that involved direct contact with medically vulnerable patients boasted in the interview that they encourage taking time off and promoting a healthy work-life balance. Their PTO benefits were 7 days off a year which included both vacation and sick time, with no COVID-related sick time allowance. Unbelievable. Last I saw they still had a job ad up marked as urgently hiring.
    I did get a great job offer though from another place, with an unexpected hiring bonus.

    1. JelloStapler*

      This is some of it too- companies, and work in general in the States- is so tone-deaf that they do not even know what good benefits are and what work/life and PTO really needs to be.

    2. Not So NewReader*

      Ironic isn’t it? They are in the health field, but their policies are the very thing that cause people’s health to fall apart. The dots just don’t connect for them.

      1. Wintermute*

        It’s a shame how few people really connect the dots. I can make a strong case that labor conditions in the US basically caused the opiate epidemic, and yet no one seems to care that we’re creating societal problems by these individual low-level choices.

        1. DJ Abbott*

          Having grown up in a Kansas factory town, I agree.
          There is another aspect shown in the Dopesick TV show, what is that elites do not see working class people as people. They see workers as tools to use to make themselves rich.

  47. Rachel*

    I am in accounting, mid-level career. Apply to remote jobs on LinkedIn and mostly get ignored. 1 position where I had the exact experience match (specialized company type) auto replied ‘no’ very quickly. Not sure if they read the cover letter or resume at all.
    Getting lots of emails from Indeed for in-person positions with a long commute and/or low salary and/or entry level jobs that I am over qualified.
    Started a spreadsheet Jan 3 to track the rejections/replies – we will see what happens.

      1. TYVMD*

        What do you like most/least about your firm and what makes it stand out from other public accounting firms? Would you be willing to chat about it over email? (I’m career-changer accounting student)

  48. Shiver*

    My former company is having a hard time finding qualified people, but they’re also asking for the Sun and offering below market rate salaries, soooo…

  49. High Score!*

    Depends on the industry. I love in an urban area. Every place I go has help wanted signs. Many restaurants are open less days then before the pandemic. Stores had reduced hours. No more 24 hours grocery stores.
    I’m in tech. Our company is hiring for some positions due to normal growth but since they treat employees well, there wasn’t a mass exodus last year. Competitors are hiring for a lot of jobs due to employees leaving.

  50. Important Moi*

    Many employers are seeking unicorns. I am getting more comfortable not being an unicorn and still applying

    2. The Smiling Pug*

      Exactly! When I started applying, the requirements were so specific and ridiculous. I applied anyway, because I can always learn new tech/skills/whatever when I’m not working.

    2. Green Post-Its*

      Agreed!

      I thought it was a hub for lazy folks but it’s also about promoting a good balanced working life and knowing your worth.

    3. AnonInCanada*

      I <3 that subreddit! Particularly when they call out companies for not paying people what they're worth. See Kellogg's and what the antiwork community did to get them to negotiate a fair deal with their unionized employees (who were about to be canned and replaced with scab labour I may add. BOO!)

  52. Murfle*

    When I was job-hunting last year, I applied to between 12-20 jobs and had about 5 interviews. The new job is fully remote and I got more pay and vacation to boot. However, I work in tech, so I may be an outlier.

  53. Lolly*

    I work in steel as an account rep and we are hiring like crazy. Salaries have always been decent but they are going up (starting for office work like my job is 50-60k), semi wfh, last year had huge bonuses. The downside is locations are not ideal unless you already live in the area.
    They hired 2 groups to our division last year and are rumored to hire more soon, probably 30 people across multiple groups.
    They definitely have some unfilled positions because lack of (qualified) candidates.

  54. Ann Perkins*

    I changed jobs last year and my small team is now looking to fill a role as well, due to someone leaving for a permanent WFH job. I have a specialized role that requires very specific licensing so it’s hard to find candidates in general. I had an easy time finding a new job due to that, and it’s still hard to find someone, even though the pay and benefits are good at this company.

    1. Bronson*

      I have 6 open analytics positions on my team. Not entry level 5-7 years experience in a data analytics role, financial service background a plus but not required. All positions start low six figures + bonus, 4 weeks vacation, 11 paid holidays and good benefits. I have had less then a dozen applicants for these roles, and most don’t have the skillset to do this work. It would take a solid year to get someone without the technical skills up to speed and I need people now not a year from now. I’m talking to my boss tomorrow to see if we can get the salary higher…….I need people asap, my team is way too short staffed for the amount of work we need to accomplish and I’m worried they will burn out.

  55. Dodubln*

    My office is not currently hiring, but another office I work remotely for is. They are having an awful time with it. It is entry level work, no experience/degree needed. My boss there is offering $17 an hour which is $7 over minimum wage in the state, plus PTO and vacation days. No takers.

    1. Windchime*

      In my state (Washington), I don’t think anyone could get by on $17/hour. It’s literally not enough to pay rent, bills, and buy food for the month.

      1. Sammy Keyes*

        Fair, but in Washington our minimum wage is $14.49 per hour. $7 over minimum wage for us would be $21.49 per hour, which at a full time schedule works out to over $44k per year. Not a great salary in the Seattle area, but it’s within the range of what I was offered for an admin job here recently (and it wasn’t entry level).

        I agree that it’s still a low salary, but not quite as drastically so if adjusted by region.

      2. Starbuck*

        You kind of can (I have been) as long as you’re not close in to the urbanized areas of Puget Sound and Vancouver/Portland. But it’s definitely gotten harder during the pandemic because a lot of our far-flung cheaper rural areas are beautiful and so have been marketed as a “remote work paradise” which is just absolutely toxic for the locals housing market.

    2. Beth*

      Are they offering benefits? Actual medical insurance? Opportunities for advancement? Parking?

      And why compare the wage to minimum wage, which is recognized as poverty-level by everyone except employers? Compare the wage with the minimum required for standard living expenses in your area.

  56. gnomic heresy*

    I think that it is true that there are a massive number of jobs open in certain fields, but not in, for example, remote intellectual work, where lots of people (like myself) are searching right now. I’m trying to get out of teaching and into corporate training. I have strong skills and have created trainings and evaluated teaching staff, but because I haven’t been a L&D specialist in a corporate environment before, my masters in educational management and strong background in learning design mean nothing apparently.

    I got a response to an application for remote educational administrator asking my salary needs. I first responded asking their budget; the recruiter wouldn’t reveal, so I gave my target range. She responded saying they couldn’t meet that, and then I gave a floor that was $20k less than the low end of my target range (which btw was already in line with other jobs I’ve been applying for). She said “we’re still pretty far apart.” I said thanks anyway and good luck.

    I mean I guess they’re not that desperate?

    I’m seeing a flood of job postings for shift workers and delivery drivers, though. Thought for a minute about becoming a truck driver, but then remembered I’m periodically too dizzy to drive and that’s partly why I’m looking remote in the first place!

    1. Shortcut*

      Fellow teacher who made the switch to L&D here! Your experience is so common. It is a really difficult field to break into, even with previous education experience…the skills are so transferable but companies just don’t seem to think so. It took me two post-bacc certificates and over 100 applications before I got an interview with a smaller consultant group that was more open minded about professional background and landed the job. Hang in there!

    2. Working with Professionals*

      I made the jump from elementary teacher to instructional designer many years ago now and what made the difference was an online portfolio of projects and having computer/IT training under my belt. There’s a need for those who can display ability with online elearning development and video dev. Double check your resume highlights how your skills can be applied in a corporate setting and don’t get discouraged!

  57. Alexis Rosay*

    Speaking from the employers’ side, people do not seem aware right now that the difficulty hiring might apply to *us*. My coworkers seem to be assuming it is a problem other people are having, while *our* nonprofit is so great that people will obviously want to work here, right?

    Some things I have seen recently include:
    – My boss being aggressive and bit rude to the *only* qualified candidate during her interview; she later withdrew from the process and we could not hire for that position
    – Creating stricter cover letter requirements when posting a new, fairly unattractive position, with the result of not receiving *any* qualified applicants

    I try to advocate for a greater respect for job seekers (and by extension employees), but I am not always successful.

      1. Winter is cold*

        I went through 3 rounds of interviews for a job that I was 100% qualified for and then they ghosted me. Prior to me applying, the job got reposted twice and was up for a long time. Employers are still treating candidates like garbage, so nothing has changed.

  58. Recovering Manager*

    I get the auto “we’ll be in touch,” message, but they rarely are. Out of the 23 jobs I’ve applied to in the last 3-4 months, I’ve heard back from 12. The others are radio silent. Not bad. But, out of those 12, 7 immediately rejected me. I made it to the project stage or 1st round interview for the other 5, but got rejected.

    In one case, I was scheduled for a first round interview, but 3 minutes before she emailed me to say she was sick and had to reschedule for today, in fact. I emailed her back right away to accept but never heard back and she hasn’t called. I emailed her again and we’ll see what happens.

    From what I’m hearing from the HR reps I do talk to, they’re getting tons and tons and tons of applications. Is that true? I don’t know, but that’s what they say. Can’t speak to salaries since I haven’t gotten there yet.

    Honestly, this feels about the same to me, compared to other job searches.

    1. MissBaudelaire*

      I’ve told this story here before. My husband went to a job interview. Had confirmed it with the manager. Walked in–manager was nowhere to be found. Had called in that day, and not called my husband. Husband emailed and tried to call the manager to reschedule. He never heard back from them again. Super rude.

      I do think places gets tons of applications, I think the bigger problem is a lot of employers don’t understand we’re coming into a whole new world, and they’re going to have to change with the times.

  59. Stacy*

    My spouse is a mid-level financial analyst who has been looking to switch companies for about a year. They get approached by multiple recruiters weekly, but the salary is always way too low for the position

  60. Aisling*

    I’ve been looking for a few months and what I’m seeing is that the non-profit admin field is trying to churn along with the same old salaries and job descriptions, but having a hard time filling jobs because the big box stores and fast food restaurants in the area have significantly raised their pay. Non-profits don’t seem to understand that they need to raise pay to attract and retain good workers in this environment.

    1. Elle*

      For us the problem is private and government funders do not increase the amount allocated for salary. We’re a public health non profit and have complained for years that salary is too low to staff positions. We are no longer applying for grants that fund salary below a certain amount.

      1. 100%thatlizzofan*

        Exactly this! We can only pay what we get funded for. We are also being choosy on what we write grants for. When it comes from funding we receive from the state, we tell them we can’t afford to do the work with that rate but change nothing!

      2. Data Bear*

        I feel ya. One major funding agency has restrictions that prevent us from funding more than 1/6 of any named personnel’s salary with their grants, and I think there’s absolutely no point in even looking at their solicitations. What, we’re supposed to land and juggle 6 grants simultaneously to keep our soft money people covered? That’s ridiculous.

        Private funders also have the problem of being incredibly stingy about overhead. Like, sorry, your indirect rate limit is less than a 1/3 of our actual overhead costs. Do you think our admins don’t need to be paid because they’re magical fairies who subsist on sunbeams and dew or something?

        1. Elle*

          My favorite is $32k for a minimum bachelors level person to do weekly home visits for first time moms, often providing support for domestic violence situations, eviction, unemployment and many other crises. Those are the positions we can’t fill. We keep getting told about how critical those programs are yet no one is willing to fund a decent salary.

  61. Construction Safety*

    We’re crying for workers.

    Welders, fitters, millwrights, riggers, bull gangers. $28-$32 per hour, 50 hour week (some shutdowns are 7x12s), ~$100/day per diem, working in the elements in generally rural locations, inadequate travel pay (I think we are in violation of federal law), decent health care (after 60 days), borderline paltry 401(k) match (most don’t care), no PTO

    1. The Dogman*

      I think I can see why you are not getting the numbers of applicants your bosses would like…

      and wow… 50 hour weeks doing dangerous and/or uncomfortable work… no thanks, not for that level of pay an benefits!

      1. Not So NewReader*

        The construction arena has this problem, too. You work while you are sick or injured or you don’t have a job period. I read of a study that showed construction workers have a high rate (than other arenas) of drug abuse because of the demand to work while sick or in pain.

        There has to be an attrition rate attached to the health problems that were set to happen with this plan.

    3. Generic Name*

      Yeah, construction is terrible. I’m uniquely qualified for a niche field in construction oversight, and there is no way in hell I’d work for a construction company, for any amount of money. The work life balance is utter crap.

    4. Jaybee*

      Have a friend in the same field who is preparing to quit due to similar conditions. They’ve been hemorraging workers for a while and can’t find anyone to fill the positions.

      People are moving to better paying jobs where they get treated as humans rather than replaceable cogs. There’s a lot more space in some nicer areas of the job market because a lot of people who could afford to do so, retired during the pandemic.

    5. DJ Abbott*

      Doing physical and dangerous work with no healthcare for 60 days? Not a friggin chance! Absolutely someone, probably me, would get injured in less than 60 days and not have health care!
      Also no PTO = workers will only stay until they find a job with decent benefits.

  62. Bernice Clifton*

    I was job searching last summer after my position was eliminated. I would say that I landed more interviews than I had during previous job searches, but I still got ghosted by plenty of employers. The jobs I was applying to had dozens of applicants per LinkedIn and Indeed (and that was only the number of applicants applying that particular channel).

    I was actually really annoyed at the attitude that there tons of jobs out there. I was unemployed for 3 months (which isn’t long) but I had people look askance at me that I hadn’t found something yet. I probably could have got a job in retail or fast food, but those jobs would not have paid my bills.

  63. Can't pass again...*

    I work in Accounting and it’s a pretty crazy environment- mid review cycle compensation adjustments, lots of departures, amped up recruiting. I’m getting a lot of touch points from third party recruiters and other firms.

  65. J.B.*

    I have gotten very few calls, partly because stupid ATS systems demand you put in one salary number and my current situation is comfortable enough that I won’t low-ball myself.

    On the employer side we didn’t get much interest in a state university staff role, the slowness of bureaucracy is probably killing us.

  66. Philly Redhead*

    I’m a graphic designer. In the past, I’d send out dozens of resumes, and get maybe three invitations to interview. I don’t know if it’s the advice from this blog, or the current job market, but I recently applied for two graphic designer jobs at two different universities and was immediately contacted by both to interview. I got to the final round for both jobs — for one job, they called me and told me they were going with another candidate (which I was fine with because I was thinking the job/salary wasn’t a good fit for me anyway), and the other hasn’t been in touch in nearly a month.

    So, in some ways, the market has been very different (getting immediate interviews for both of the resumes I sent out — in sectors widely know to move VERY SLOWLY in hiring), and in some ways the same (getting ghosted after interviewing).

  67. Hypnotist Collector*

    I’ve been applying for jobs and have had no luck for 18 months, and I’m sorry to beat this drum, but I’m older and that matters. For almost six years pre-pandemic, I worked at a tech start-up in online learning that was successfully acquired by a major media company (that closed us down because we couldn’t do live video production during the pandemic) so this is not an issue of “she’s too old to work in a modern company” or “she’s not comfortable with technology.” I’m doing part-time hourly work that mostly pays the bills that I’m very grateful for, but everything (rent, health insurance as my COBRA ends, food) is far, far more expensive this year than last year. I will believe companies are desperate for skilled and experienced employees when they start interviewing, let alone hiring, older people. But nobody’s DEI program gives anything more than lip service, if that, to age discrimination. They said in 2020 that older women would be the last to be re-hired, and apparently that was accurate.

    1. Hypnotist Collector*

      (and I don’t want to be quoted, too identifiable, thank you Alison for the heads up on that)

    3. EJ*

      Often healthcare.gov can be MUCH cheaper than cobra. Losing health insurance post job loss counts as a qualified change in status, so you should be able to sign up off cycle. Call the navigator number on the website for your state, theirs is a legally mandated position to walk you thru the process and very helpful. In your position you may qualify for subsidies to make it even cheaper.

      1. Hypnotist Collector*

        It’s not cheaper for what you get. I had an absolutely phenomenal plan through my last employer, was very willing to keep paying for that plan, and nothing in ACA compares to it – not even close. I wish they’d considered extending COBRA to 24 or 30 months for people who got covid-laid-off so I could keep that plan. I’m working with a reputable broker, I’m not stupid and I’ve researched all my options. Bottom line, it’s not cheaper when you’re older and in the limbo between being employable and Medicare.

    4. Anon for this...*

      FWIW, I’m getting ready to make an offer in accounting to an “older” female candidate – she was not my ideal candidate and my boss is concerned about her adaptability but I think her experience and knowledge makes up for any hesitancy on our part.

      Persistence. :)

    5. Rara Avis*

      My husband finally found a job after 18 months. He is approaching 60 and is sure that’s part of the issue. Because of the way salaries work in education, they have to pay him based on years of experience, so he’s more expensive than younger candidates.

    3. Anon for this*

      I can add an academia story (and do not quote me on this Alison because we do not need it getting back to the state GOP) but my spouse is faculty at one of the “No Mask No Vax In Person Or Bust Let’s Make Those Lazy Liberal Professors Work” red state universities and ummmm most of their colleagues have CVs out to leave the state.

      1. pancakes*

        Why should the state GOP and its supporters be shielded from knowing that they’re driving people away? They can’t criminalize looking for better work elsewhere.

        1. The Dogman*

          “They can’t criminalize looking for better work elsewhere.”

          Only a matter of time til they try… who knew they would criminalise going out of texas for an abortion?

          1. pancakes*

            Anyone in the US who pays even a little attention to the news over the past 30 years or so should’ve spotted that one! The problem isn’t that they’re duplicitous about it but that their supporters like it.

        2. Trixie the Great and Pedantic*

          I imagine it’s less shielding them from the knowledge and more not encouraging them to push people out before the escape plan is fully formed.

          1. pancakes*

            How exactly do you envision legislators pushing individual people out of their jobs? Faster than driving them out with bad policy, I mean.

        3. Anon for this*

          Because the state GOP *wants* to gut the state universities. They *want* to get rid of the “dirty liberal professors” who are “brainwashing their children.” If they find out that they are unhappy with their work conditions, The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves. They’ll get punished further, with more punitive rules coming down from the State House making their work conditions even more unbearable and people will get fired over petty things.

          They need to be able to look for new jobs without drawing undue attention to themselves.

          1. Starbuck*

            Yeah, it’s tough. Half the time when I want to complain loudly and publicly about the negative impacts of this kind of conservative political mis-management, I have second thoughts because it’s just telling them what they want to hear, that their BS tactics are working as intended, and I truly hate the thought that I’d be giving them that satisfaction.

            1. pancakes*

              You think it is unsatisfying for them to have no opposition? Compliance with their policies? They’re happy either way, with that or with angering people. The idea that people who oppose this stuff can make it go away or slow it down by quietly accepting it is a peculiar fantasy.

              1. Starbuck*

                Hah, I said I have second thoughts – not that those thoughts actually stop me from complaining.

          2. pancakes*

            That’s something they wanted and started pursuing well before the pandemic, and I just can’t see how or why keeping quiet about unsafe pandemic conditions is going to slow it down. The idea that they’re going to be placated by quiet obedience isn’t going to improve this situation. It’s just going to continue worsening conditions in the schools and further entrench their belief that most people agree with them. It’s not a coincidence that the same group has been talking up “a silent majority” for decades.

      2. NewYork*

        My sister lives in a red state, and she says along as it is only liberal arts professors leaving, the red states will be thrilled to replace with adjuncts. Less happy if STEM or business professors leave.

  69. Arts nonprofit*

    I am in an arts nonprofit in very large city. We have had a mid-level position open for a couple of months; I think we got fewer than 10 applications of which none of them were qualified. We’re also hiring for a few part-time entry level roles and haven’t received as many applicants as we normally would. I’m also looking for a new position, similar to the one I have now (department director level) and there are definitely fewer opportunities than pre-Covid.

  70. AnonToday*

    My spouse has been trying to get into the clinical research field (just finished a biology PhD) and isn’t getting bites despite many in the field saying there is a huge shortage of entry level staff. We live in one of the major hubs and even working through their and my professional networks hasn’t yielded much yet.

    I’m not sure if the companies think a PhD is over qualified for entry level clinical trial work, or will be too expensive? But Spouse isn’t getting any requests to interview or hearing back from the places they applied to at all.

    1. Grand Admiral Thrawn Is Blue Forevermore*

      My roommate is finishing her Phd in theatre history, and I am praying she gets a local job. Otherwise I have to move, since I can’t afford the whole rent on this house. I’m pretty sure she will have to get a local public school job to get some experience before she can work in the area she wants.

      1. The Smiling Pug*

        One of my friends is finishing his master’s in Theatre and I can only pray that he gets any kind of job related to that field. He has a few years of experience in the nonprofit/teaching sector, but this new variant is staring down the entire arts industry.

        1. Grand Admiral Thrawn Is Blue Forevermore*

          I admit I am still confused about why she would choose a career that isn’t immediately obviously lucrative, but she is very passionate about it. I want her to succeed. I just need more time. I guess we always do.

          1. pancakes*

            Not everyone wants to shape their life around making as much money as they can as quickly as they can.

          1. Me!*

            Oh, but theater, art, writing, music, etc. aren’t actually WORK. God forbid creators should get paid! It’s all passion, don’t ya know! /s

          2. WellRed*

            This is a job thread. I’m well aware that theater has been around for millennia but I am pretty sure job prospects are poor and jobs that require and pay for a PhD person are thin on the ground.

            1. Fran Fine*

              Yeah, that may not have been the most prudent course of study, but god love her for doing it – someone has to. We need artists and art historians. Culture depends on it.

            2. pancakes*

              People who want a strictly vocational education aren’t barred from pursuing one. I don’t agree that any and all higher education needs to be vocational training. We have enough anti-education sentiment and public policy as it is. That is not a world I want to live in.

            3. Jaybee*

              The ‘real world’ is not comprised solely of for-profit companies and their needs. The fact that this is a thread about jobs isn’t an excuse to be rude about pursuits that aren’t intended to be profitable.

    2. Sutemi*

      I’m in biotech, and I’d ask how important is it that their first job be clinical? It is harder to go straight into clinical work with a PhD than into translational medicine or research. Getting some experience in those departments and then doing a transfer to clinical work may work out better, especially in a small to mid sized company which allows people to move around. The spouse isn’t over qualified, they are differently qualified than what is needed for a lot of entry level clinical jobs.

      I see a lot of people moving around, lots of open positions in Biotech but often difficult to match experience and skills with the job needs.

      1. AnonToday*

        Thank you for your response! I really appreciate the advice; we have a lot of life changes this coming year so we’re both anxious for something to shake out soon.

        I know Spouse doesn’t want to do bench work anymore, but I’ll share your suggestions. We didn’t really think about that approach, and Spouse is totally willing to do a year or so of the very entry level clinical research jobs to break in. Based on what you’re saying, research or translation might pay better and be a more solid bridge anyway.

    3. Monday*

      I work in clinical research and I do think a PhD on the resume might be initially off-putting for an entry level job. BUT this could easily be overcome in a good cover letter. In my area of the US there is a high demand. Good luck to your spouse!

  71. Grand Admiral Thrawn Is Blue Forevermore*

    My company is currently hiring for several positions. They have increased their pay – last year I got $2 more an hour just for sticking around. This month I asked for a raise and got another dollar per, although I think that is past what they are normally willing to pay this position. It was made clear that this raise caps my salary for this job, which I am fine with due to the amount of OT I get.
    The first person hired only lasted a day. Her replacement starts Monday.

  72. Rage*

    We’re hiring like gang-busters over here. Of course, industries like mine that rely on direct care professionals (AKA DCP or paraeducators) for disabled children and/or adults have been hit hard by the pandemic and everyone is struggling. We have directors working in our group homes pretty much every weekend, just to help keep everyone safe. I, myself, normally a 1st-shift admin person, am working 3rd shift this Friday & Saturday because Omicron variant has knocked out a good chunk of our staff.

    We have not been doing in-person interviews for quite a while now, and our HR has been pretty consistent with scheduling Zoom interviews for within 24 business hours of receiving an application. They are very aware they need to move quickly, given the state of the market these days. But we can’t just drag in anybody off the street: we’re a residential school, so we have to follow a number of state mandates, including a drug-screen, background check, and FBI fingerprint clearance (that takes the longest, and we’ve lost a solid chunk of people who had something in their background that precluded them from being able to work in a DCF-licensed facility). This is our “entry level” position and the only requirement is a high school diploma/GED and the ability to pass the background check.

    They are talking about re-starting in-person interviews, but know that those are not as easy to schedule on such short notice, and they are concerned that it might cause them to lose out on potential recruits.

    Our new CEO (bless her heart, came on board in June 2020 and ended up COVID quarantined during her first 2 weeks) has boosted DCP pay to $15/hour base rate (for all staff, not just new hires), plus pretty decent benefits (including a scholarship program and tuition reimbursement plan). It’s a hard job, not gonna lie, but the culture here is better than a lot of places I’ve seen (and they are still working hard to improve it), and we are very much a “grow our own” culture. My current boss, the division director of the school, started off 18 years ago as a DCP in the group homes. So it’s not just talk, they really do prefer to promote from within, and will develop people specifically for that purpose. This is all to say that my organization is working hard not just to bring people on board, but to make them want to stay and develop them further.

  73. Lady Glittersparkles*

    My soon-to-be-former employer has been hit hard with the staffing shortage, though. They only have the board to blame for refusing to raise extremely low to below market wages depending on the position (we’re a non-profit). One program area that was extremely essential to our clients has completely shut down for months now because they can no longer find people to do extremely difficult work for practically minimum wage. It’s sad for our clients, but they continue to blame the market for something they could do easily fix.

  74. Prospect Gone Bad*

    I got headhunted for a few roles that were way way more specific and picky than jobs have been in the past. I do think many of those 10M open jobs are nice-to-haves where the company is fine waiting months or years to hire someone.

    I think many things are overlapping here. It’s not just the s0-called great resignation. It’s how jobs are changing. Jobs are getting more specialized and gal/guy Friday jobs are decreasing in number. So you end up with really specific technical skills being needed on top of jobs (sometimes unnecessarily) demanding very specific industry experience. And suddenly the ad sits there for two years and the position never gets filled.

    Personally I am not thrilled with this one-sized-fits-all great resignation narrative, because it may give lower skilled applicants who are not in demand the idea that they can play hardball, ask for an unreasonable salary, and job hop, without it causing them to lose offers.

  75. HugsAreNotTolerated*

    Laughably low offers from employers. This is from a real posting I saw the other day and saved so that I could forward it to my friends and show them just how out of touch some employers could be.
    Executive Administrative Assistant role for a mid-sized consulting firm in major North Texas city
    -10+ years of experience overall
    -7+ years of direct C-suite support
    -Hours stated as 7am -5pm M-F, but OT often required and on-call on weekends
    -Must be “Boardroom ready at all times both in demeanor and appearance”
    -Expected compensation between $38,000 to 42,000.
    Not sure how they expect someone to afford “boardroom ready” clothing every day of the week on that salary.

    Another example from my current company:
    Our shipping & receiving manager recently left and I laughed when I saw the job posting. They want someone to handle all our incoming & outgoing mail/FedEx, etc.,deliveries, and facilities work and the listed pay was I kid you not.. $15-16 an hour.
    Our receptionist makes $14.75 an hour.
    They got a temp to fill the role and the guy is doing great in it, I was chatting with him and asked if he was going to apply for the role full-time and he said that taking the job directly with the company instead of through the temp agency would be a $4 an hour pay cut.

    1. Agile Phalanges*

      Yeah, at my last job, we had a hard time hiring unskilled labor. My boss suggested we try a temp agency. They told us they’d have to pay a minimum of $15/hr, plus their fee on top of that, and my boss was currently paying $11. So yeah, no wonder we can’t hire workers. He didn’t raise his minimum, and we struggled to hire. Even when we worked directly with a parole/probation officer and took people in her program for non-violent offenses. When you can’t hire/keep even felons desperate to maintain employment in order to stay out of prison, maybe you should re-think some things.

    2. A Girl Named Fred*

      I’m also looking for AA/EA type roles, and this has pretty much been my experience so far too in the Midwest. Paying $15/hr if you’re lucky, and they still want 5-10+ years of experience, special experience with whatever software they use rather than looking for comparable experience and providing training, must be available 24/7…. it’s absurd. I’m just trying to find one that’s acceptable, not even great, and my options are still pretty limited.

      Of the ones I’ve found that did seem okay, I’ve gotten to two first-round interviews and one second-round interview. I was rejected after the first-round interviews, and ghosted after the second-round interview. Seems like it’s pretty much ‘business as usual’ here, unfortunately.

    3. Jax*

      Laughably low offers and inflated titles. I am in the Pittsburgh area and have looked at HR positions. An “HR Manager” does not make $40,000 per year, process weekly payroll, and “handle the office mail” on top of benefits/recruiting/hiring/onboarding/performance evaluations/labor relations. You want an Office Manager, a Payroll Manager, and an HR Specialist all in one. For $40k?

      Good luck with that.

      On the other hand, I’m also seeing very senior HR roles posted that sound terrible (up to 75% travel between multiple locations, heavy responsibilities) listed for $75k. I’d be thrilled to make $75k, but after reading the job descriptions I have no desire to apply. I can already sense the insanity.

    4. AnonForThisDuh*

      Mineral extraction here. I’ve had almost a half a dozen offers (as the incumbents refuse to be vaccinated and are subsequently let go), all laughably low pay and unreasonably high work load… which makes wonder about the real reasons people left.

    5. Starbuck*

      -Hours stated as 7am -5pm M-F, but OT often required and on-call on weekends
      -Expected compensation between $38,000 to 42,000.

      Ugh, how ridiculous. Yet another reason that the federal minimum overtime-exempt salary threshold needs to be raised annually.

  76. ThatGirl*

    My husband’s workplace (a smallish liberal arts university) has had an open counselor position for at least 6 months. Last he knew, nobody had even applied for it.

    But it’s plainly obvious why: they are asking for much more experience than they’re willing to pay for, and also ideally want a bilingual counselor who’s also a POC. For crap pay at a university with a mediocre to bad reputation for staff. Any clinician who’s bilingual with any significant experience is gonna go get paid well elsewhere. They SHOULD be targeting grad schools for recruitment but noooo….

  77. anonymous IT*

    I work in IT (10+ yrs xp). I sent out 3 resumes 12/31/21 and had 2 interview requests by the Monday. I have 3 interviews (1 recruiter, 2 direct) and was contacted by a recruiter at a 4th company where I hadn’t applied in less than a week (almost exclusively using LinkedIn). It very much depends on what field you are in and what level in that field. I see a lot of entry level and mid/senior level technical support roles and software engineering roles open at a range of companies. I honestly thought that I would have time to assess what I want to do next and give my current employer an opportunity to retain me but the level of response (colleague already has an offer letter) for my team’s skill set is intense.

    1. Love to WFH*

      I’m seeing a lot of hiring of software engineers, and related roles on development teams.

  78. C.*

    I’m looking for a new job now, and I’m waiting to hear back on three positions: two of which that I’m pretty sure I’ll receive offers for. Just yesterday, an employer I applied to reached out to me to let me know of a new position they listed that’s better-suited to my resume and encouraged me to apply. So, I’m feeling pretty confident that I’ll be in a different situation within the next month or so.

    Before all this? It was the “always the bridesmaid, never the bride” situation for me when I was trying to land a job offer. So, I have to say it’s nice that I have options and—even if nothing comes of these—I get the distinct sense that more opportunities will present themselves.

  79. BRR*

    I think it depends on the field and area. In my field, fundraising, I’m seeing a lot of what I saw before the pandemic, high expectations for what they want in a candidate and minimal effort to attract and retain employees. I get the sense that a lot of employers aren’t asking themselves “how to we make this a place where people want to work?”

    My personal theory is starting during the 08-09 recession (or possibly earlier but that’s when I graduated so this timeframe is my knowledge base), hiring has been disproportionately balanced towards employers. It was very slowly shifting pre-pandemic but a lot of employers weren’t changing their perspective. And now a lot of people don’t just want a job but a good job while I think there’s a lot of stubborn leadership that thinks “you should be grateful to have a job.”

    1. Birdie*

      I’m also in fundraising and I too am seeing job postings with very high expectations and requirements with really low salary ranges. Which is what it was like before then pandemic, too. Very frustrating.

      I’m being really targeted in my job search. I’m horrifically underpaid right now, overworked, somewhat burned out, dealing with an absentee director, and just about ready to start smacking some non-fundraising colleagues around (the usual tensions between fundraisers and programmatic employees), but at the same time, I come and go as I please, really enjoy working with the small team I lead, we raised record amounts this year…..so, not willing to switch jobs unless it means a pay increase, reasonable expectations, and is in the major metro I would like to move back to. I’ll dance with the devil I know for a bit longer.

  80. Cheap Ass Rolex*

    “I desperately want to stop being understaffed [but not enough to improve the pay or work environment]”, they cry in the papers.

    Seems like they don’t want it very much, then.

  81. Xenia*

    I recently got hired at a smaller public accounting firm. We are still furiously hiring. Public accounting sees a LOT of turnover in general and right now we’re really wanting experienced people, to the point where current staff are being offered VERY good referral bonuses. I’d say that our office and firm specifically is a pretty good place to work within the realm of public accounting. There’s a late winter/early spring busy season that’s not super fun–to the point where I’d say it’s the single biggest reason for people to get out of public) but I’d definitely say that where I am the partners do their best to keep it from tipping the line from “overtime is not fun but doable” to “unreasonable workload”, the pay is decent, the benefits are good, and the work environment is pretty solid. But public accounting has a bad rap for being a bear so keeping people in past 6-7 years or so can be hard.

  82. Tessera Member 042*

    I got a job as TT full-time faculty at a community college in June, a replacement for a COVID retiree. There were a total of 8 new faculty hires with me, and that’s the most this college has had in a single year for the past 10 years. Pay is fine (I probably could have done better if I kept applying and adjuncting), but I prioritized moving closer to family and into an area with much more affordable housing so we can possibly buy a house in the next year or two – we were totally priced out in the area we were previously living.

  83. WingedRocks*

    I know my employer hasn’t had any trouble filling vacancies – but they also offer fully remote positions, a competitive salary (seriously), and lots of flexibility and autonomy. I think they hire less than 5% of total applicants? No apparent issues with recruiting here.
    Now, we don’t have any jobs that are listed as entry level – but neither do we seem to hire people without prior relevant experience. On my team, everyone has at least 4 or 5 years of post college work. But that’s all clear in the postings, too.
    Before I got this job, I was actively looking, and got several lowball offers. Or the job posting made it seem like flexible/remote work was an option, but in interviews, it was clear that they were not really OK with it, or that it was a privilege to be earned.
    Anecdotally, it really seemed like some companies were trying to put up window dressing to make the work look more appealing than it actually was. It seems like clarity and transparency in the hiring process benefits everyone involved – a really scalding-hot insight, I know.

  84. J*

    At my employer (university), there is certainly more hiring going on than there was last year, but it comes with a lot of caveats. We were under a hiring freeze until last Fall; now that this has been lifted, departures are being backfilled (and there are a lot of departures), but most positions that were open/frozen during the hiring freeze are NOT being reinstated. So while we have openings, I don’t know that we actually have more positions overall. And many of these positions are relatively entry-level (or simply roles that are notoriously underpaid/overworked); I don’t know this for certain, but I don’t think we’re doing much to make these positions more desirable. So someone leaves for a better-paying job (or more remote work, etc.), and we just try to backfill it without changing anything about the job or compensation.

    Generally, it seems to me that employers are using “we can’t find anyone!” simply to brush off complaints about poorer quality service/products, because the primary lesson they learned from the pandemic was “if our employees have to do more with less, they will, and it’s better for our bottom line than upholding a standard of service/quality is.”

    1. Loulou*

      The hiring freeze thing is big and I haven’t seen it talked about much. I’m seeing a relatively large number of job postings in libraries too…but my sense is few of them are new positions, they’re just vacant positions that the institutions are newly able to fill.

      Combined with how many people have been laid off and how many new professionals have been unable to build skills through in-person work this year…I would not say this is a good time to be a new librarian, even as anecdotally I see a lot of early-career people getting great new jobs.

  85. Agile Phalanges*

    I just searched. I started looking right around Christmas time, so of course there weren’t a whole lot of appropriate active listings, but I applied for the three that looked good, and figured I’d check back in January.

    One, a large corporation, sent an automatic e-mail that I’d be considered, and I heard nothing else, but the listing was on Indeed but not their website, so it might’ve already been filled.

    One, a smaller regional company, sent an automatic e-mail that I’d be considered, and also had the listing on Indeed but not their own website, so again it was a just-in-case application and not one I thought would pan out. They called me, though, and in our phone conversation said that particular position was filled (as I thought) but they’d still like to discuss how I could fit into their department, as they really liked my cover letter and resume.

    The third, a much smaller local company, contacted me, we did a phone interview last week (between Christmas and New Years), then had an in-person interview Monday the 3rd (the first time all the appropriate people were back in the office), they offered me the job on the spot, and I accepted Tuesday.

    I’d say that’s pretty good odds, and definitely better than it was last time I searched (starting this time last year, landed this job in March, and yes, that’s the shortest I’ve ever worked in a place), but I’m an anecdote of one.

    2. Agile Phalanges*

      One more add-on: I’m not directly involved in hiring here, but overhear the person who does do it, and it seems we’re having a hard time getting employees, both blue-collar and white-collar. I have no idea if the pay range is fair for those positions, but I was offered a fair salary when I started 9 months ago. At my last job, I did help with hiring, and it seemed like it was hard to find both blue-collar and white-collar workers, but we didn’t post salary range, and paid blue-collar workers barely over minimum and well below comparable companies/roles, so yeah. That wasn’t surprising.

  86. Cat Lady in the Mountains*

    I’ve been having an extremely hard time finding candidates who are qualified (across all experience levels). We offer salaries well above industry standards (high five figures for roles with 2-3 years of experience, regardless of where you’re located), great benefits, genuinely good work life balance, and fully remote work from anywhere in the U.S. for anyone who wants it, so I don’t think pay or benefits is the issue. Our requirements are all skills-based – i.e. “great writer” rather than “English degree” – and historically that’s helped us build broad, excellent candidate pools, but it’s not helping now.

    For the two senior-level roles I was hiring for in the fall, I got barely any applicants after an in-depth recruitment process, and when I finally found two great finalists I lost both of them within 24 hours to jobs in completely different industries. For the entry-level role I’m currently hiring, it’s a writing role, I’ve gotten over 100 applicants in two weeks, and exactly two of them had coherent cover letters. (I’m not talking “two great cover letters and plenty of ok ones” – I mean “two candidates who wrote in complete sentences.” Half the cover letters were 3 sentences or less.)

    We post salaries on the JD’s, so for the entry-level one I’m guessing we have a lot of folks who see that salary and figure “why not apply?” (I hear this feedback a lot in phone screens.) For the higher-level roles with nonexistent candidate pools, I think it’s because everyone in my industry is hiring and the skill set I need is one for which it’s fairly easy to find a “sexier” job.

    For folks with experience in my specific industry, there’s also a lot of burnout (it’s a field notorious for “you spend your whole career trying to move the needle a tiny tiny bit to make people’s lives better but are constantly barraged with news about how it’s hopeless). So I’m hearing from more-experienced candidates that they’re trying to switch industries to somewhere where they can make a bigger impact. Which, totally fair.

    2. Jules the 3rd*

      I wish there was an AAM job board. I’d love to assess your actual company and those senior roles. I have an MBA in supply chain, and I love quixotic challenges.

        1. Fran Fine*

          Seconding this. My team is trying to backfill a position as a Communications Specialist, and I’m sure there are probably many posters here who could do the job if they knew it existed (and it’s 100% permanently remote!).

      4. A Girl Named Fred*

        Agreed! I recognize it’s totally safer for everyone to remain anonymous, but I’d love to at least read the actual job descriptions for the roles several folks (including Cat Lady in the Mountains) have described and see if there’s anything I might be a fit for.

    3. Gracely*

      From what I can glean from your description, I have to say I’m intrigued about what jobs these are. I probably don’t have specific industry experience, but I have a lot of transferable skills. Any chance you could point me in the direction of your job ads?

    4. Starbuck*

      You know, one thing that’s been really interesting on here is how differently cover letters are talked about vs. where I see them discussed among the general population online (Twitter, Reddit, and even in person).

      Here, it seems the consensus that it’s reasonable to ask for a cover letter describing why the person wants and is well suited for the role, and that job seekers on here agree that writing a good one following the advice here has helped them a lot and been worth it.

      Out there – the tone of the discussion (from job seekers mostly) seems to be, how dare they ask for this, it’s an absurd thing to ask of applicants when they’re just getting not read and ghosted anyway, if they do write one it’s damn well gonna be a generic copy-and-paste deal, plus lots of people saying they won’t even waste their time writing a letter if they’re applying somewhere it’s requested, or just not applying for those roles at all. It seems like such a huge disconnect.

      1. pancakes*

        That isn’t something I’m seeing on Twitter. I think this really, really depends on who you follow and interact with.

      2. Gracely*

        Well, I think here we recognize that there is a use for them (even if you don’t like writing them). And the audience here is attuned to that fact. We also probably have a higher concentration of people who are on the other side of hiring and use them to evaluate candidates. Elsewhere, people are more likely to be ranting about how much they hate having to write them, and when you’re ranting, you’re generally not looking for the positive side of the thing you’re ranting against.

        I loathe writing cover letters, but I’ve been on hiring committees, so I do understand how important they can be. Doesn’t mean I don’t still hate having to write my own.

      3. Jaybee*

        It sounds like you’re interacting with a lot of people who are bitter and ineffective job-searchers. Nobody I know in real life has ever expressed that opinion; we often help each other with cover letters.

        The most vocal population of Reddit (outside of very specialized subreddits) are children and young adults under the age of 25, so they’re not a great source for taking the pulse of the general population of job-seekers. I’m sure many of them are also shocked and outraged to find that there are items like taxes and insurance deducted from their first paycheck.

      4. DJ Abbott*

        I think it’s because writing a good cover letter + filling in ATS fields = 1.5 to 2 hours to apply for one job.
        I’m most annoyed at the ATS. In this job search of nearly 2 years and my last one of five months, I’ve seen the “ populate from résumé” work *almost* correctly exactly one time.
        Almost always, it brings in my name and address and phone number and I have to fill in everything else manually. This is one of the reasons it takes so long to find a job – can’t apply for more than two or three in one day and if you’re already working you’re lucky if you can apply for one a week at this rate.
        I know someone who he has a good job and is looking casually. She gives a big F-Y to employers who expect her to spend that kind of time on their ATS.
        Employers could eliminate the ATS and hire a few people to go through the resumes. It would create jobs and be much better for candidates. But who cares about the candidates?
        Once in a while I do see an employer that doesn’t require the ATS. Bless them!

  87. JustAClarifier*

    My husband and some friends have been actively searching but getting ghosted by businesses.

  88. Sullivmke*

    I work in software. There isn’t a shortage of qualified candidates, but the competition for top talent is incredibly fierce. Starting salaries have increased easily 25%-50% in the last 6 months alone, and people often have multiple competing offers. Startups are poaching talent from the more established players with crazy offers, which is driving the constant hiring (crazy growth + attrition means we’re *always* looking for good people). At least in tech, it’s absolutely a job seekers market.

    1. The Dogman*

      What part of “software” do you work in?

      There is a lot of different areas, all of them so desperate?

    2. Sarah55555*

      Great if you’re a dev. But the business side of software? They have absurdly rigid hiring practices, and I’ve heard a lot of complaints of “we’re having a really hard time finding the right person” while looking for people who ONLY have experience in software and doing the exact job they are looking for (looking for an admin? I guarantee it’s not that hard).

    2. Cold Fish*

      I’ve lost count of the job ads I’ve seen that want 5-8 years of experience (in a fairly unique field) but are only paying $17-18/hour in high cost of living areas and where the job is in-person. I imagine the employers think that is a good pay rate but it really is insulting.

      **I found myself in this unique job field (20 years experience) but in a different branch. I’m having no luck finding openings in my branch though.

  90. BlueWolf*

    I think it’s really industry dependent. My fiancé was laid off from a restaurant job March 2020. He wants to get back into the “professional” world (generally policy related roles) because he doesn’t feel safe going back to in-person work in restaurants. Unfortunately, he has quite a gap in “professional” experience prior to the pandemic, plus the pandemic gap. He did have a phone screen and zoom interview for a job, but didn’t get it. He would be fine with an entry level role, but I think many employers don’t want to take a chance on someone with a gap and/or who is currently unemployed. Either employers are being too picky or there is plenty of competition for entry level roles. He is getting pretty discouraged about applying for jobs because in most cases no one ever even acknowledges the application. Meanwhile, my field is pretty in demand, at least in my geographic area. I have had recruiters contact me pretty regularly over the last year, but I am happily employed and not looking to change jobs right now.

  91. alienor*

    I changed jobs about five months ago and had a pretty easy time of it. On the other hand, my 22-year-old daughter has been trying to get a part-time job off and on for almost a year (she’s still in college) and has had zero luck. She’s applied for more entry-level retail and restaurant jobs that I can count and has gotten called for two interviews: one where someone else got the job, and one where she showed up for the interview and they told her the position had already been filled. I don’t understand it since those are supposedly the industries that are desperate for workers, but there it is.

    1. The Smiling Pug*

      Seems like nothing has changed in some fields. The latter scenario happened to my Mom back in the early eighties. She passed the phone interview with flying colors and took two buses down for the in-person interview and she was told it had already been filled.

    2. Michelle*

      My 19yo was job-searching for two months, and I can’t tell you how many retail jobs he applied for where they scheduled a zoom interview and didn’t even bother to show up for it! And a lot of these places now, if you go in and try to talk to someone about getting a job they will just refer you to their website. So he applies online, gets an interview, no one shows up, and they didn’t give him any contact info except the main business phone number that doesn’t even go to the specific store he’s applying at. At one store he finally managed to hunt someone down, and they basically shrugged and said the online interview scheduling was messed up and no one at corporate will fix it.

  92. Laura Mendez*

    We moved this summer after my husband found a new job and so I also was job hunting, going from a more academic to industry focused job (husband and I are in the same field). I had a bunch of interviews even though in some ways my previous experience was a real stretch and I landed a job pretty quickly. My husband is in a new department and they are really struggling to find qualified people for multiple open positions – they ended up downgrading some of the positions with the idea that since they can’t find people with the technical skills they want they will have to hire entry level people and do all the training on the job.
    I gave notice at my previous job at the end of April, left end of May, and it took them a long time to replace me as well; they ended up just promoting a former coworker into my old job and then hiring a more entry-level person to take over that person’s job duties but that didn’t happen until nearly the end of last year.

  93. VV*

    I’m searching with the aim of starting in the summer, so not really looking in earnest yet, but echoing other folks who say they’re seeing mostly very very junior or very senior (or high- mid level).

    Salary hasn’t been fantastic either. I am looking in NYC, and most roles I’m seeing are offering salaries around what I made in my first job out of school (DC, 2016). That’s not feasible. (This is for the nonprofit/advocacy arena.)

    1. Jo April*

      Same. I saw one listing with 4-7 years of experience required …and a salary that was barely higher than what I made coming out of college, with a liberal arts degree. I work in tech.

  94. Critical Roll*

    I got a new job that was a big step up for me in mid-2021. My industry had a lot of furloughs that turned into layoffs, and then when it was time to get going again, well, turns out those people aren’t where you left them and a lot of them are too mad about how they were treated to come back to you anyway. Unfortunately, the smaller your staff, the more skilled you need them to be, so it’s been a struggle to get core positions filled across the organization, and no, the pay is not competitive either.

  95. Revised Revision*

    I work in HR in a very niche field and am having a tough time hiring for all levels of vacancies. I cant get any candidates from competing businesses to even have a conversation with me with an ‘open salary’ budget for some of the high end roles. I suspect that the company I am working for has a reputation they are not willing to confront. It makes recruiting extremely tough.

    I am however resigning and have applied to a ton of jobs outside my field (but in HR) and have had a few initial calls but no round two’s or three’s. I am looking to move out of the field I am currently in so I think that’s part of the problem but I’m remaining positive. During the dozen or so interviews I did have no one balked at my $150k range asking salary and often said they had budgeted for slightly more.

  96. Chairman of the Bored*

    I’m in engineering, my experience and that of my engineer friends is that you can currently walk into a job just about anywhere for top dollar.

    I routinely get unsolicited job offers (not interviews, actual straight-up job offers) from real companies I’ve had no prior contact with.

    Multiple people report getting great offers right at the end of their interview, and people just out of school are approaching 6 figures in moderate cost-of-living areas.

    I’m currently asking my employer for a ~25% raise for my whole team, and I think we’re going to get it.

    Not sure how long this hiring environment will last, but I encourage everybody in this field to take advantage of it while it does.

    1. MansplainerHater*

      I am also in engineering, with 12 years experience, and this is my world too. Ask for what you want, but ALSO WHAT YOU NEED.

  97. Jack of all trades*

    I’m having a terrible time finding a part-time temporary worker. The pay is actually really fair (I’m pretty ecstatic I was able to get that approved), but the role is 18 hrs a week and will end after about 6 months, so I’m not surprised either.

    But I can’t get budget approval for a half-time or full time permanent role in the next year until I prove that this position helped us achieve goals, so it’s frustrating (For both me trying to get the help, but also for the fact that we can’t offer a fair and permanent role to a deserving candidate!)

  98. balanceofthemis*

    I finally, successfully, concluded my job search just as employers started complaining about the worker shortage. But I know several people who are job hunting, they are employed, but unhappy. Even though they have what are supposedly in-demand skills, they are still getting ghosted, offered lower than average salaries, or dealing with bait-and-switch offers where the position was advertised as full-time, but the offer is part-time or contract work.

  99. Daniel*

    I have not been looking but I do have an idea of what my agency is doing between looking at the internal job board and canvass letters that get mailed out to anyone eligible for a promotion or a lateral. Back in mid-2020 the job board was down from about 25 position to three or four, and absolutely no canvasses were going out. Now the job board is more packed than I have ever seen it, and instead of getting maybe two canvass letters a year, I got four in the span of three weeks. I finally had to take my name OFF the canvass list temporarily since I’m not eligible for promotion and I’m not interested in a lateral right now.

  100. a thought*

    I recently was hiring for a position and it was a fast job market for the best candidates – we had 2 turned down offers (one person had 4 competing offers)! We realized our typical process was too slow (it took approximately 3 weeks). We knew we had to be faster – the third time through, we had an offer in their hands within 9 days of their application, and it was accepted.

    We also increased the salary nearly $20,000 from the first posting to the third posting, because the market was showing us that the candidates we wanted could command more money! (We discussed keeping the same salary but making the role more entry level, but decided to increase salary instead).

    Context: hiring within a grants/fundraising role at a non-profit in a major East Coast city

  101. Bookworms and Cats*

    I’ve applied to some remote positions where they are not set up for employees to be working in the state I live, so that’s an issue (if you are advertising a remote position in the US, please list what states they can live in!).

    I’m mid career, and there’s definitely a gap in available positions in my field, plenty of entry level and plenty of 10 years experience with supervisory, and not much in between (I’ve got 8 years with no supervisory).

    I’ve been on about a dozen phone interviews in the past several months, and only got one actual interview. A handful were recruiters, none of those went anywhere (not sure if it was skills/experience mismatch or salary I was asking). The lack of salary on job postings is definitely an issue in my field.

  102. AllowsItMight*

    I am a legal secretary in a mid-sized city; I started looking for a new job in September 2021 and was hired in December 2021 after applying to only two jobs. (I’m picky; I have decades of experience in a high-paying specialty.) My new position is remote indefinitely, pays 20% more, has better health insurance and better vacation.
    My former employer, an international law firm, has had open positions for legal secretaries and office clerks for more than 6 months without being able to hire. This is partly because they don’t pay great (mid-range for this city), the benefits are low-range, and they are requiring in-office at least 3 days a week.

  103. overeasy*

    I spent 6 months job searching and hearing how employers were so eager to snatch people up was so disheartening. It was definitely my hardest job search ever. I was looking to pivot from the role I was leaving, to either pivot back to a previous niche or pivot to a new but related niche. I have done this type of pivot more than once, it’s not really possible not to when you work in the internet where so many jobs didn’t exist 5 years ago. But wow did I run into so many brick walls. Applied for roles where my previous work had me as one of the (very few!) people with that expertise and got only a handful of phone screens. That niche is growing a lot and yet no one seemed to understand my experience, I hit more walls with that first round of HR screens than I ever have before. Was even worse with roles that were a slight pivot from work I had done, got basically nowhere.

    I ended up getting hired, but only really made progress when I had personal connections to help me get through those early screenings and into substantive conversations. Luckily things are going great, but it’s become quite clear to me that my paths forward are getting more narrow and that if I really want to succeed I’m going to have to stick with where I am. As someone who’s made big and small career changes, it’s much worse than I’ve run into before.

  104. SnarkyMonkey*

    We are hemorrhaging talent, both salaried and production (factory workers) and can’t find/hire qualified applicants who will work for what previous employees were making. We’re going months without filling positions, mostly because our HR VP believes that we’re all overpaid. The market believes otherwise… I wonder who will win??

  105. AnotherSarah*

    I’m an academic in the humanities—we’ve been in a hiring crisis since 2008 at least. I’m lucky to have a professorship, but universities are generally offering “raises” below COL adjustments—effective paycuts. And most universities choose to hire contract workers (adjuncts) rather than pay benefits or a real salary or offer any stability to either workers or students. We’re immune to any good news for job-seekers.

  106. Kodamasa*

    I’m in higher ed and my smallish department has three positions open that we can’t get applicants for. It’s a combination of low pay, no remote work, and it being a rural campus, all things the college won’t budge on. And I think that’s the crux of it; employers need to pay well and/or offer remote work if they want any chance of attracting good (or any) candidates. The people you hear about getting new jobs all say the same thing: “I got a huge raise and it’s 100% remote”.

    1. Aggretsuko*

      I certainly don’t want to move somewhere remote for a job. I once saw a job doing what my specialty was (which is rare) but it was in nowheresville and was all “No way in hell am I moving for that.”

  107. Exhausted Employment Attorney*

    I don’t think this is as relevant to the “current times,” because it’s been an issue for a while, but my firm CANNOT find qualified legal assistants/secretaries, and we’ve been trying to hire them for at least 5 years. We’re in a major metropolitan area, the pay is high, and our firm culture is good (generous benefits, PTO, and the working hours are >40 per week). I think it’s just a dying field – it seems like there are very, very few people who decided to be legal assistants in the last ~20 years, so the actual pool of people who do that work shrinks constantly. We’ve even tried to hire paralegals for the roles – the pay is high enough! – and the problem then is that most paralegals don’t want to do secretarial tasks (which is completely fair).

    1. Jules the 3rd*

      I’ve heard so much about those jobs becoming automated that I’d be scared to enter that field.

    2. AllowsItMight*

      After all they keep telling us our jobs will be gone in 10 years, between the automated pleading drafting apps and young attorneys doing all their own work directly, why would anybody enter this career? Also when I started I got my first legal secretary job with only a high school diploma (no college degree or NALS training or paralegal certificate) but now they want college degrees for entry level $17/hour jobs (seen on Craigslist).

    3. Turvy*

      10 year legal assistant/paralegal here ::waves:: … it’s because the job is demoralizing and offers zero career growth. We’re tossed around like office equipment so that while we might work extremely well with one attorney or team and get interesting and stimulating projects, the next month we could be assigned to someone with a totally different work style who expects us to fetch coffee and process expense reports.

      These days you’ve got two types of legal staff: young professionals just out of college trying to decide if they want to go to law school (they won’t stay long, most leave for a non-legal job post haste), and career veterans who have resigned to their stagnation; perhaps they’ve found their groove with a great attorney/firm or perhaps they’re dead inside and doing the bare minimum to hold their job since zero effort or 100% effort yields the same exact results w/r/t raises and career opportunity.

      I don’t know what the solution is; I’m trying to get out.

      1. Exhausted Employment Attorney*

        This is terrific insight and I REALLY appreciate you – and everyone else – responding to my post! You’re completely correct that there isn’t any “upward” career path for these types of jobs – the most you can hope for is good pay and (hopefully) an assignment to attorneys with whom you have a good working relationship. And even that is subject to change if an attorney retires or leaves or whatever. Also 100% agree with Sammy Keyes point (below) that this used to be a career for women who really didn’t have other viable options. My best friend’s mom was a stenographer (now retired), and she was a huge influence on me to go to law school. But had she been born in a different time, she probably would have done the same.

        I do think that there are lots of jobs ::out there:: that are inherently stagnant, and there are people who take those jobs and find them an acceptable and not miserable way of earning a living. But it’s tough to make that call at the outset of your career, tougher still to do that in a field where there has been significant contraction (the automation stuff) AND where you are tied to the fate of your assignment.

        I don’t think these types of jobs will ever completely disappear, but the profession is likely going to have make even more significant adjustments to accommodate the lack of people. It’s sort of a shame – I love the collaborative dynamic I have with my current assistant – but maybe its a job whose extinction has come (or is pending).

    4. Sammy Keyes*

      It does really seem like young people aren’t gravitating to those jobs as much anymore (I say this as a young person!). I worked at a well kn0wn law firm a few years ago as a receptionist and literally all of the legal assistants/secretaries were 30+ years older than me, and that seemed to be true across similar firms.

      They would have been more than happy to train me up to take that role some day, but after seeing how so many of the lawyers treated them like glorified personal assistants in addition to their legal duties, it just seemed so unappealing! I don’t want to go through years of learning the ins and outs of being a legal assistant to still get called on to go fetch someone’s lunch if they want me to. And there’s a big gendered element to this as well, most women of my generation don’t go to college intending to become someone’s secretary. It just doesn’t feel like as viable of a choice anymore, when we have so many more options available to us.

      That being said, I think this wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the work that secretaries and assistants do was actually valued properly and given the correct recognition!

    5. Dragon*

      Some paralegals couldn’t do a legal secretary’s job if they wanted to. I worked with one paralegal like that, who among other things was a weak typist.

      A recent trend in the BigLaw firms is putting their secretaries into either several pools, or one big pool like there was in the early days of office work. They think it’s more efficient, and will spread the total workload out more evenly.

      Which might be somewhat true, if everybody in the pool has the necessary skill set and work ethic to deal with anything that may come their way.

  108. SheLooksFamiliar*

    I started a new consulting project 4 months ago, a former boss called me out of the blue to offer me the gig. At the time, I was wrapping up a consulting project for another former boss. Both projects support(ed) corporate talent acquisition operations – sourcing, recruiting, tools, resources, and strategies – for Fortune 100 companies. In both cases I wasn’t looking, and I am anecdotal proof that it’s not what or who you know, it’s who knows YOU.

    On the hiring side of the desk, I can tell you all our recruiters are having problems filling hourly and salaried roles, not just in the US but across the globe. They often get fewer than 10 applicants to job postings, and many of their applicants don’t meet even half the minimum qualifications for the role. Our sourcers do a lot of targeted outreach and we get better results from their candidates. Even so, they have a hard time connecting with people of interest because those folks are getting swarmed by agency and corporate recruiters. I think candidates are overwhelmed and tired of so much outreach, and they just ignore it. Can’t say I blame them.

    We tell our hiring and HR partners that it’s a very different job market and we don’t make all the key decisions in the hiring process – candidates do, too, and they have a lot of career options besides us. We need to present a compelling opportunity, offer remote/hybrid roles, and get serious about competitive salaries. We also need to get out of our comfort zones and stop saying ‘We never had to hire like this before,’ and ‘I can’t go over midpoint,’ and ‘I want what I want because I want it.’

    I think that last part is a big reason why employers ‘can’t’ find talented candidates. They can, they just don’t want to adjust their methods or thinking about HOW they do it.

  109. Cheap Ass Rolls>King's Hawaiian Rolls*

    I just started a new job, but was on the job market from March 2021 to November 2021. My industry is non profit, in education. My background is working with middle and high school students. I applied to well over 100 jobs, and had maybe 15 interviews with about 6 organizations. I actually stopped keeping track when I hit 80 applications in April. The job I landed was through a contract from a previous job, and not through applications. I did get one job offer, but the salary was almost half of what I was getting before. I had many potential employers ghost me. Two of which I was on like, the 3rd or 4th interview with. I applied both within and outside of my industry, to non profit and government jobs.

    My take away is that while there are a lot of jobs, there are also a lot of people seeking jobs. Also, I think the industry has a lot to do with it. Companies and organizations related to education are not doing well because of continuous challenges at schools. If schools are struggling, they have no interest in working with non profits. Their attention is elsewhere, rightfully so. For some people, it’s a really tough job market.

  110. Hiring Mgr*

    I’ve been in tech sales management for a long time and never had the difficulty hiring that I did last year. It took me six months to hire two fairly junior roles (not entry level, but not too far beyond). They each had multiple offers and we had to offer signing bonuses which is completely unheard of in this field.

    More than the length of the time though was the level of my involvement in the process – i had to really nurture these candidates and push our HR to be repsonsive, etc.. I was actively courting these candidates and sweating out their returned offers. FAR different from prior years..

  111. Chauncy Gardener*

    My company is in the software sector and finding experienced developers, programmers and implementation folks in our specific, very competitive, ecosystem is REALLY hard. We’re fully remote (with fully supported IT), pay competitively (really), pay at least 80% of medical insurance premiums and have other really nice benefits, have amazing work-life balance, require folks to take their vacations and a very supportive, transparent, employee-centric culture (not the “we’re faaaamily” BS).
    We’ve had folks accept our offer, then renege two to four days later. We’ve had someone START WORKING and after a two weeks, quit because they accepted another offer.
    Our specific job market has always been competitive, it’s now insanely competitive.

    1. Chauncy Gardener*

      That being said, my kids, early to mid 20’s, are having a REALLY hard time finding decent jobs. Every “entry level” role they see requires 3-5 years of experience. In my company, we hire for attitude and aptitude for entry level roles, not experience, and then, gasp! train them. Otherwise it wouldn’t be an entry level role! Duh….

      1. Fran Fine*

        That part. I talked my manager into opening up the role we’re trying to backfill to encompass new grads as well as those who have the 3-5 years experience because everyone on our team, no matter how busy we are, makes time to train one another on things in our respective focus areas when necessary. I think as long as someone’s hungry and willing to learn, so what if they have little to no real world experience yet? This is how they get it.

      2. Sarah55555*

        My group of 12 has hired for 6 of the positions in the last year, including me. 3 of us have zero experience in the industry and they were willing to train us and it is going well. Management just realized that any job needs to be trained and so they’re hiring for the right person even if they don’t have all the right experience.

  112. DJ*

    I work in the biotech space in the DC area and just changed jobs. I found it relatively easy to find a new job but I also heavily utilized my network. Most of my former coworkers who had left Old Job had a fairly straightforward time of it.

    On the other hand, Old Job, is severely understaffed and having trouble replacing people But they have terrible Glassdoor reviews, paltry benefits, and low wages. What I’ve taken away is that reputation of a company makes a big impact on how easy/hard it is to hire.

  113. Wisteria*

    Isn’t this going to be very specific to industry and role? An engineer and an office manager, even an office manager at an engineering firm, will be looking at very different job markets. When employers say they can’t find people or job seekers say they can’t find a job, I don’t think you get a full picture just by taking those two statements at face value. You need the full context.

    You should also consider that as an advice columnist, you are getting a biased set of data. You don’t have anything even close to a random sampling either in your commentors or in the the people writing to you.

    1. Hlao-roo*

      This is very dependent on industry, role, and location. It is also not a good random sample. That doesn’t make this useless. I am enjoying reading the responses people have posted here, and I find the wide range of experiences (both across and within) interesting.

  114. DB*

    Just yesterday I saw someone’s tweet laughing at the ridiculous requirements for job hires (like “PhD required, 15 years experience required, pays $7.25/hour”), and someone pointed out that it’s a way for employers to scam the government – they get business assistance, and only have to prove that they are “seeking employees”, even if their job-wanted adds are ludicrously out of touch with reality.

    TLDR: the government is enabling fraudulent behavior, and employers are taking them up on it

    That’s one aspect of the on-paper-difficulties.

    The other aspect I’m seeing is: Companies want decades of niche experience, but won’t pay for it.
    As an example, I’ve been working in a highly technical field for around 25 years (including management experience!), and over that whole time, my pay has only increased by 30% in real (adjusted for inflation) terms. I’m finally realizing that they want people to slave away for nothing but the non-existent possibility of a fantastic payout (an IPO), and not willing to put up or shut up.

    2. Mordin*

      We have seen people complain about lazy unemployed people doing the same thing for years… interesting that companies can do the same thing when the shoe is on the other foot…

  115. MondayMonday*

    My partner who is in Finance (experienced level) has been job searching. Landed a job very quickly in December with a $5K signing bonus, after 2 short interviews. Determined this job is not the right fit (they changed the job description after they accepted the role).

    They have 3 interviews this week with 3 different companies. All are very eager to hire to the point they are reaching out to them to talk salary and the role even before the official interview. Salary seems to be on point so far for the roles.

    I am in IT and I am still seeing the steady flow of emails from recruiters to hire for contract positions. I am not looking but it seems like that market is still the same.

  116. awesome3*

    I’m seeing a ton of social work roles open and places actively trying to hire social workers, but I haven’t seen any difference in rates of compensation or benefits.

  117. Bananagrams*

    So far with employers I’ve spoken to, it seems like they’re aware about the conversation around the labor market being tight, but unless they’re hiring for highly sought after tech talent or in-person frontline roles that have gotten a lot of press for being difficult to fill right now*, they aren’t considering how they might need to adapt at all – they think it is other companies’ problem, not theirs. They aren’t raising offers, or salaries to prevent attrition, and they’re getting annoyed when candidates push back on unreasonable requirements. I think it’s going to take a little longer for the average employer to really feel the pain of not offering better opportunities (higher pay, better benefits, more regular schedules, more flexibility, what have you). Most employers are still operating like it is 12 years ago.

    * Whether or not employers are thinking about how they need to adapt for in-person frontlines roles seems to vary a lot, mostly based on how dependent an employer is on these frontline roles (how much they’ll suffer if the roles aren’t filled), and how employee-oriented they are in the first place. Plenty of employers still have crappy frontline roles they don’t plan on changing and they think candidates are expecting too much from them. Some of these places may end up shutting down I think, especially if they’re small businesses.

  118. CWT*

    I’m not looking, but sometimes I get solicitations for positions. Usually it’s from a contracting company (body shop) that is just trolling for resumes to pitch into some company’s portal. I can do that myself, so I never respond. Also, the job descriptions are always a step or 2 below my current job description and are “6 month contract with possibility of extension.” No thanks. If any company recruiter ever sends my an opportunity to move up I would talk to them.

  119. Michelle*

    My kids have been really struggling to find retail work. My 23yo has been struggling to find anything full-time that pays enough to cover her rent. Her current job was seasonal, with a promise to be full-time after the season ended, but instead she got dropped down to one day a week. My 19yo was job-searching for two months after his last job screwed him over (significantly cut his hours and reneged on an already promised transfer right after he signed a lease on his new apartment), and finally had to take a job in fast food. He had a lot of problems with employers scheduling zoom interviews and then not showing up and ghosting him. My 18yo and 16yo are both working, but have been actively job-searching for months because they hate their current workplace. The 18yo has an upcoming interview at a big box store that has already been postponed twice, while the 16yo hasn’t gotten any responses at all.

    My husband, on the other hand, was laid off on a Thursday and had a job offer by the next Tuesday (which he negotiated and accepted by Friday). He works in a niche tech field.

    1. Michelle*

      I should add that my 23yo keeps getting calls from her former employer begging her to come back, but that’s the same employer who repeatedly cut her hours after promising full-time, wouldn’t let them ask customers to wear masks and threw a fit when employees called out sick, and suggested my daughter stop paying rent to save up for a car so she could be called into work on less than an hour’s notice.

      1. Lady_Lessa*

        WOW, that is some nasty employer. I hope that your daughter has written them up on Glassdoor.

  120. Hailrobonia*

    I’ve been in a job search for over a year but am still finding it hard to get interviews, even in jobs that are a great match. I’ve been refining my resume and cover letters, but it’s very disheartening, especially since my workplace is becoming increasingly toxic.

  121. Beboots*

    I’m definitely hiring seasonal staff right now for a non-US national park, competitive rates. I’m getting more applicants, but more discerning candidates – more people are turning down my job offers, or taking more time to think about it. So it seems to me anyway that candidates have more choices and options.

  122. WFH is all I Want*

    I’ve been job hunting since August 2021. I’ve had interviews for 3 different roles and sent out 187 applications to date (all of them tailored to the jobs I’m applying for). I’ve been applying for three types of jobs; ones with the same title as I currently hold (exec assistant), ones that I have experience for but are a step forward in my career (Chief of staff to CEO), and ones that are more of a lateral move (office manager).

    I have noticed that the experience requirements seem really out of whack. When I was job hunting in 2019, an EA to the CEO required an average of ten years prior c-suite experience but now the average is 5 years and the compensation has decreased.

    I’m starting an MBA program and hoping it makes me competitive since my 20 years of steady experience isn’t doing it. I just want a job that pays my bills and has enough left over that I’m not living on ramen noodles for two weeks every month so my child can eat real food and have access to good childcare.

    1. Sammy Keyes*

      Have you thought about looking at agencies like Boldly that hire admin/executive assistant professionals for long term contracts with different companies? They’re fully remote and only hire people with significant experience. I know people who have worked with them and I hear good things.

      1. WFH is all I Want*

        I’ll take a look but I have to have health insurance. My child is disabled and top notch health insurance isn’t available for the contract work I’ve seen.

        I’m even on sites like flexjobs to find a part time gig to supplement income and it’s not going anywhere.

        I’m desperately job hunting because I have high level access to senior leadership emails and found out there’s a restructure coming with layoffs across all employee levels. It’s due to be announced in the summer (US) and as an admin I probably won’t survive it since I was the last one hired 3 years ago and the leaders I was supporting just resigned.

      1. WFH is all I Want*

        It’s frustrating. I’d like to add affordable rent to that wishlist too—a one bedroom apartment, in a bad neighborhood, is going for $2100 around here.

  123. Picard*

    I am hiring for my department and have been looking for the experienced level role for over 4 months. We have already bumped the salary up twice. Its a nice office job with excellent benefits/ salary for our area so I’m not sure why we’re not even getting applicants. We’re a small company (around 50 employees) with a fairly flat management structure.

    The entry level position has been posted for a week and I already have over 20 applicants and interviewed 4.

    I’ll be damned if I know whats going on.

    1. Picard*

      I will add that remote work is not available at all for the entry level position and generally not available for the higher level position.

    2. Jules the 3rd*

      From what I read, there’s two shortages, maybe you’re seeing both of them:
      1) Entry level people shopping around to change careers / get better pay / better work situations, driving a lot of churn / applications / employees rejecting offers.
      2) Older people who are retiring, some early. The stock market’s high and we’re in the middle of being reminded that life is short. We’ve been hearing ’60 is the new 30′ since at least 2014, and now boomers are figuring out that’s not true.

      I’m too young / unfunded to retire, and kinda bored, so I am looking at re-skilling and changing careers. But until then, I’m hanging tight because I’m scared of the job market and really like my employer.

      1. Loredena Frisealach*

        “2) Older people who are retiring, some early. The stock market’s high and we’re in the middle of being reminded that life is short. We’ve been hearing ’60 is the new 30′ since at least 2014, and now boomers are figuring out that’s not true.”

        Yes, this is definitely happening! My SIL retired last summer (doctor); my brother is retiring this spring. Both 55. I’ve been targeting 62 as my retirement age but if I were to be laid off I think I would just retire. And I might retire sooner anyway, as my husband’s health issues have made me realize that we’ve already missed the window on a lot of our ‘when we retire’ plans. So if this pandemic ever ends…

        A few of my cousins retired at 60 when offered packages by their employer, and I think that more people may be inclined to take it then happened in the past.

  124. ventures!*

    I do a lot of entry level hiring for more junior roles in our corporate office (think 2-6 years of experience). I have interviewed over 200 people this year and hired 125 (and supported promotions for 87). I am seeing our staff being more willing to promote and take a chance where historically they could be a bit unforgiving/hard on certain individuals. That said, in my own high level job hunt (15 years experience) I’ve had 2 LOL experiences on reading whats in the job description and seniority level desired versus what they are willing to pay for leadership. My translation of it all, easier to find “doer”/execution roles and harder at a more senior level

  125. Sleepless KJ*

    I realize this makes me old, but I remember a time when employers actually hired “the person” and helped them learn specific skills they might have been missing for the job. I am lucky to have fallen into one of those situations with my current job after relocating back to Chicago. Of a hundred resumes submitted, the job I have now is the only one that responded and they’re been very good to me.

    1. A Girl Named Fred*

      This is exactly what my dad always used to tell me. “As long as you can show them that you’re pleasant, show up on time, and are willing to work, companies will train you to do whatever they actually need you to do.” And that has just not been my experience at all.

      1. WFH is all I Want*

        I’ve only had that experience at a tiny company (fewer than 12 people) where the CEO was in his 80s and that was in the early 2000s. I was offered the job on the spot and had multiple promotions as I gained skills and experience in things like accounting and operations. I didn’t even need a degree. I’ve never found anything like the job or the management style since then. And they believed the company was a community but not a family. It was such a great place to work.

      3. Fran Fine*

        I’m very fortunate to be having this experience now. Granted, I have a little over a decade of professional, post-grad experience under my belt (so not totally a newbie), but I was promoted last year into a role I had never officially done before – even though I have a degree in the field (2009 recession grad here) – and my manager is really giving me the space to learn as I go in a very high level, strategic position. I know for a fact I would have never gotten a role like this at another company because communications is a very busy field and folks swear they don’t have the time to train. It’s crazy, and my manager is a unicorn for this, lol.

  126. Tekken*

    We have had a lot of people in my large nationwide marketing department leave this last year. However, we have also been hiring and replacing them, so it seems they are finding the right worker/skills/salary match. However, it’s taking somewhat longer.

    On the tech side (hourly technical workers) we are finding ourselves priced-out by other industries because we expect particular skills for a wage of about $16/hour. Positions have become difficult to fill, especially in certain regions. Yes, we could/should raise the starting wage, but what people sometimes do not understand is that then we would likely not make a profit because our customers may not be willing to pay more for this tech service, and/or we already have a contract for a set rate, which means we’d be operating at a loss. Not saying this is good practice, but certain areas do run at a wire-thin profit margin and there are limits to what customers will pay (even if they value it). If the margin gets too thin, it’s not worth offering the service anymore, which would then mean reducing staff, which hurts more people. It’s a balancing act for sure.

  127. Hermione Danger*

    I’m not looking, as I work with a really great team and I’m well appreciated I’m also still learning a lot and quite challenged in my current position. However, as soon as I hit the three-year mark of experience in this new career/field last fall, recruiters started reaching out to me on LinkedIn.

  128. Me, Myself and I*

    I’m in the UK and work in digital marketing. The pandemic got everyone online all the time and web optimization was and is in such high demand it’s crazy.
    I have been on both sides, recruiting at my old agency and then changing jobs a couple of months ago and, in this industry, the market is definitely not an employer’s game anymore. Good candidates, particularly for mid-level roles, are a rare find and recruiting takes various months (few good CVs of candidates being snatched super quickly and being offered far more than just last year for the same experience). Seeing all that and seeing some new red flags in my old agency, I started to look and got an offer two weeks later.

  129. Nonprofit Life*

    I’m trying to hire, in nonprofit legal services, and there are very few applicants. A couple years ago, within 2 weeks of posting we would have 5-10 applicants for each fairly junior attorney position. Now, we have one position that’s been open for 6 months with about 2 applicants over that time, neither meeting the very basic requirements. We are screening and interviewing applicants immediately instead of waiting to assemble a pool. We had one candidate who applied on Tuesday. We screened them on Wednesday, interviewed on Thursday, cleared references Friday morning, and offered the job Friday afternoon. They declined because they’d already accepted another offer. I am hearing the same from my legal services colleagues, it’s a very slim applicant pool and we all feel the pressure to move extremely fast.

    1. Nonprofit Life*

      I should add: we are offering entirely remote work, it’s not an issue of requiring or even asking people to be in offices.

    2. Gary Patterson's Cat*

      What are the “vert basic requirements” of being a nonprofit attorney? Isn’t it just being an attorney?

      I’d have to think that being a nonprofit attorney would tend to mean a much lower salary than most law firms. Not to mention zero bonuses they’d get in BigLaw. That’s not why attorneys should choose a job of course, but with a hefty law school student loan, I’m guessing this is might be the issue.

  130. T'meka*

    There are a lot of jobs but the pay is terrible. They want a ton of experience for not a lot of money. I wish they would preface their “no one wants to work” rants with “We are paying on the extreme low end for this position”.

  131. NotMichaelScott*

    Haven’t read through the responses yet. Trying to hire for a position that we have not had trouble hiring for previously. Salary (I think) is fine for the field. Mid-level position. We have 10 applicants. None I would even consider calling in. It’s like they didn’t even read the posting.

  132. Cj*

    I was looking for a job about a month ago. I submitted 6 resumes with no cover letter (the postings specifically said cover letters not required) through Indeed on a Monday night. By Tuesday afternoon, I had 4 interviews lined up, and by Wednesday I had a job.

    I’m a CPA. Better pay, but fewer benefits at my new job.

  133. Talk is Cheap. Supply exceeds demand.*

    HR for a mid-western US mental health non-profit here…

    We are practically BEGGING for candidates. Very competitive pay and benefits, sign-on bonuses, etc. Good company ratings on Glassdoor, etc. Good culture. Very purpose/mission-driven work. Government oversight and regulations have made the hiring process long and tedious, which weeds out a third of candidates very quickly. But we even have a hard time getting qualified candidates in the door. We advertise on all the places that are relevant in our area/field/etc., but often candidates don’t even meet the minimum qualifications. For example, a mental health counselor is required to have a master’s degree and counseling license, but we have apps from those w/o a bachelor’s degree.

    1. 100%thatlizzofan*

      I 100% feel your pain. We have waiting lists for services because we can’t find staff to do the work and our current staff are exhausted and many of them try so hard to do it all because they care so much, but this just fuels the turnover.

  134. Over It*

    I work in government, and our HR is moving with their usual lack of urgency to fill open positions (which sucks for us because our team has had a few openings we’ve really needed filled for months now, and one of the positions still isn’t even posted yet). And they’re requiring the same overly rigid requirements about minimum experience and certification, even when not truly necessary for the job. Because we are government, we have almost no ability to offer perks like more vacation, higher pay outside established salary bands, better benefits, fully remote roles or professional development funds. I work at a large city government with several thousand employees, so of course there’s variation on hiring across agencies, but overall I think we’re going to have a tough time competing with private sector and even non-profits that are more able to adapt to attract good candidates. The security of government jobs doesn’t hold the same appeal that it used to, especially for younger folks. I’m in my late 20s, but there are very few people under 40 in my area, and I don’t plan to stay in government more than a few years, let alone retire there.

    1. Schrodinger's Cat*

      I work in state government and I agree about the lack of urgency on hiring people. The benefits also no longer make up for the low pay, as the pension keeps getting cut, the number of years you need to put in has increased, and the percentage of your pay that is put in to the pension fund also keeps increasing. Medical is ok but not great, costs keep going up and COL raises (if you get them) don’t keep up with the increases in pension and medical. I honestly would not recommend government employment to my friends anymore, though we need more workers badly. :(

  135. drtheliz*

    I’m finding it pretty much exactly the same as it was 2018-2020: a whole lot of ghosts and one rejection notice. (I’m in Europe and in scientific project management/outreach, fwiw).

  136. Former Systems Administrator*

    I know they’re trying to hire for a Senior .Net developer role (and it must be senior-level due to… concerns with the current team) on a team I am on, but because of the pay in the government world, even if it’s a contractor position, there’s not enough cash to make anyone come in. And it’s not a small amount of money they are offering, even though it is in the low end of the pool if you put private employer positions in there too.

  137. DANGER: Gumption Ahead*

    I am not looking at all, but have certain “hot” skills during this time so have had a RIDICULOUS number of folks in my network hit me up for positions. Thus far, the compensation and benefits are on par with pre-pandemic, so compensation is a bit low given the current climate (yay public sector/non-profit/quasi-public sectors) but the benefits are quite nice. I have used this opportunity to connect the folks looking with people I know at HBCUs, Native student alumni networks, and anyone else I can think of who serves historically excluded groups in my field. Thus far it has helped the orgs diversify their staff (something they desperately need), helped people from excluded groups get into or up in the field with the same salary white people get, something I know didn’t happen pre-pandemic. I make sure that I tell my contacts for potential hiring the salary and benefits so no one gets low balled. So far everyone seems happy. Jobs are getting filled, excluded folks are getting included, and my contacts who were hiring have thanked me for connecting them to a whole network of talent they hadn’t ever considered (*head desk*) and have discovered thinks like having a Navajo or Tewa speaker when you run a maternal-child health program in Santa Fe is super handy (*double head desk*).

    Long story endless, those who are currently working and not looking to move can do our little bit to help out with DEI at this time by connecting searching employers with people and networks they might not have considered and help excluded folks get into the workforce. Wins all around

    1. Murfle*

      It’s so amazing that you’ve found a way to connect people like that. And I bet it’s going to have GREAT knock-on effects for you in a few years.

      1. DANGER: Gumption Ahead*

        I swear my biggest contribution is being able to talk to the candidates and say, “OK, I worked there/friend worked there/I wrote the salaries into the grant before at this level and my pay was $Whatever in 20__ with approximately the same experience you have. Don’t take a dime less than $Whatever+inflation and if they ask where you got your numbers give them my name, tell them when I worked there, and to call me if they think I am wrong.”

  138. mcfizzle*

    This is a bit of a tangent.

    I’ve been working for a public school district for close to 14 years now. Note: in tech in the main administration building, not a teacher or school staff. Our tech department has been a mess as they were paid way, way too low, so the turnover for entry IT staff was ludicrous. For years!

    Since COVID, the district has finally determined that retaining qualified employees is kind of important (d-u-h), and has done a ton of work around equity surveys and pay scale adjustments. In July my salary went up 30%, amongst other unexpected perks.

    Thus, while I’m not actively searching, it’s rather lovely to see them stepping up.

    1. avocadotacos*

      Woah! Amazing. Our district is trying to raise the minimum wage for cafeteria and custodial staff for next school year, but I haven’t heard of anyone else getting raises.

      1. mcfizzle*

        Our classified staff (nutrition, custodial, transportation, etc) definitely received the biggest bump, and wow did they need / earn / deserve it!!

        Hope your district can do the same – good luck!

  139. Anon for this*

    I am in IT, not actively looking, but if I receive a message about an opportunity that looks good, I respond. That’s what I’ve been doing throughout my career. I’m way past the acceptable age for IT, and my skillset is behind, because, again the way it’s always been in my career, everyone wants to hire candidates with cutting-edge skills, but then once they’re hired, no one wants them to work on anything cutting-edge, and are wanting them to work on old legacy software instead. I never had an easy time getting second interviews and offers before, and I’m not having an easy time at it now. Nothing has changed for me in that capacity. With that said, I’ve had employers from out of state, including one big-name tech firm from the West Coast (no, not Amazon, I know not to respond to that one, lol) reach out to me about remote positions in the past year. (The tech firm actually provided two months of intense interview training before giving me an interview.) In the past, the job market was limited by where you could commute to or where you were able to relocate to. Now, the sky’s the limit. This gives me hope for when and if I start job-searching actively. There is more competition, but also infinitely more employers to choose from.

  140. Three Flowers*

    We’re even seeing weirdness hiring student workers in my college office. Our institution’s student worker pay scale isn’t much above minimum wage in our state (higher than federal here), and students is specialized fields can make dramatically more in internships. And even the ones who aren’t in specialized fields can make $15/hr stocking shelves at Target or the grocery store. In the past, $11-12/hr and convenience was enough to get student workers and now it’s a total struggle.

    Anybody else seeing a dramatic decrease in Uber/Lyft availability in your area?

  141. Mimi*

    There were two positions open on my team at the end of last year. We made offers to eight candidates, two of which were eventually accepted. At least one other candidate that we would likely have offered to withdrew because they got another offer, and we streamlined our hiring process partway through in an effort to stop losing candidates before we could even make an offer.

    … And one of the new hires just gave notice because they got an awesome opportunity for more money and a really desirable setup working with a friend/former coworker, so we have an open position again.

    This is nothing like hiring I’ve done before — very unlike my own job search for this position, just a year ago. Sure, the salaries could be a bit higher, and I don’t think this company sells itself to candidates quite as much as it should, but candidates in my field are going like hotcakes right now. If I weren’t very happy where I am, I would seriously be wondering if I should be sending out applications, because I strongly suspect that I could get a 20% raise without much difficulty.

    1. Mimi*

      In IT (not software dev) in a US east coast city, and these are remote-for-now positions with a low chance of needing to come in occasionally (I’ve had maybe four times I legit needed to come into the office since I was hired, and while someone on my team needed to do those things, it did not necessarily need to be me).

  142. should I apply?*

    In my field (product development – mechanical engineering) I am seeing mixed results. We are definitely having higher turnover than in the past with people mostly going to large tech companies known for high salary / stock compensation, while my company is probably more middle of the road compensation. However, the turnover is definitely highest in jobs that are easier for skills to transfer – marketing, project management etc..

    We have been able to hirer new people but can’t seem to keep up with the turnover. I blame at least some of it on our slow corporate hiring practices. Plus overworked people trying to cover 2 people’s jobs doesn’t have a ton of time for interviewing.

    In my personal job search over the last year, I have found most of the job postings at my level (Senior Engineer) are still looking for unicorns with 10+ years experience in very specific technologies and a specific software, and/or the company is below average on pay. Also no one is posting salary ranges, so its definitely a crap shot of time and energy. I had been thinking applying for a management position, but all the 1st level management roles are asking for 5 years of management experience.

  143. Jules the 3rd*

    I had a Facebook conversation with a friend of a friend back in October. He manages a chain restaurant in my area. He complained that he wasn’t getting many applications and fewer acceptances. I asked what he was offering – $10/hr to start. I did a little digging, and found restaurants around him were offering $12/hr for starting pay. Target starts at $15/hr and benefits, and was hiring. He got very quiet when I told him this.

    I just checked his restaurant’s jobs offering, they still start at $10, and no mention of benefits / time off.

    Times are changing – if employers don’t keep up, they’re not going to get employees.

  144. FCJ*

    My partner has been looking for minimum wage work for months and has gotten maybe one interview, no jobs. I don’t go out a lot because, you know, so I don’t know how thick they’re laying on the “nobody wants to work” thing around here, but I do see hiring signs at the supermarket, etc.

  145. Deirdre Honner*

    I have started tracking job postings and am seeing things like:
    – comfortable with ambiguity (meaning they don’t know what the job is or they want to lowball candidates)
    – if you need a job that ends at 5pm, this job isn’t for you. (available 24/7/365)
    – advertises unlimited PTO but “brags” about the commitment and investment of team members (you really don’t get any time off).
    It’s crazy.

  146. Old Cynic*

    What I’m hearing from HR folks in the SF Bay Area is that they’re getting hundreds of applicants for open roles and applicants are ghosting at any point during the process, including after having accepted the offer. And, yes, salary and benefits are competitive. YMMV.

    1. MisterForkbeard*

      Yep. We get this too. We have this even in a lot of other countries (like the Phillippines) where we’re considered a really great job. In november we had a 50% hit rate for people who’s actually accepted the post-phonescreen interviews and just never showed up in Zoom.

      We’ve had a couple others drop out during the offer phase, though mostly that’s because they’d been interviewing with a few other places and someone got to them faster.

      1. I Wrote This in the Bathroom*

        Yeah, I’m not a proponent of ghosting, and have never ghosted, but to me it says a lot about how messed-up the hiring process had become over the years, that I first found it out on this site, about a year ago, that ghosting a candidate is not a normal thing that everyone does. It has been so widespread in my experience. You come in for an interview, are told that you’ll hear back “in the next two weeks, either way”, and… crickets.

  147. RicksGuardian*

    I am in cybersecurity and it’s a tough job market out there though I hear there’s lots of openings. I live in a highly tech-centered city (Not in CA) so perhaps it’s just sheer numbers here that is making it hard to find a job?

    1. Jules the 3rd*

      You might check out Fractional CISO , they’re hiring “Cybersecurity Service Delivery Manager” and “Virtual CISO Principal”, I think mostly remote. They want CISSP, very transparent about hiring practices.

  148. JAM*

    We have a lot of open underpaid entry positions we are trying to fill. But, as mid-upper level people have left, they haven’t been hiring new people and instead just keep restructuring.

  149. MisterForkbeard*

    We’re seeing a lot of institutional weirdness. The company (very large software company) knows it needs to hire quickly, especially to combat somewhat larger attrition than normal. So we’re have a lot of pressure to hire and do it fast. But we’re also very budget constrained because the budgets for this fiscal year were made over a year ago, and the net hiring budget doesn’t change. So we tend to offer less than we should, though I can sometime go over budget for a candidate I like.

    Likewise, lots of pressure to hire quickly and lots of pressure to cut down on interviews, but also pressure to increase manager interaction by including VPs and so on – it’s schizophrenic.

    Seeing a lot of weirdness in applications, too. In one of our offices, we have about 50% hit rate for candidates to actually show up (on Zoom!) for their agreed-upon interviews. And we have a very good reputation in that office location, so it’s not that people don’t want to come near us.

  150. Not THAT Karen*

    I work in nonprofit behavioral health in the US. There was a nationwide workforce shortage before the pandemic, and things have gotten substantially worse in the last two years, while the need has skyrocketed. Pay is low, but nonprofits are somewhat restricted in the salaries they are able to offer by the amount of the government contracts (and yes, lobbying is being done and things are ever so slowly starting to change, but it’s government). So yes, we are desperate. Organizations all around us are closing programs because there aren’t enough staff. Three of the largest organizations in my metro area currently have almost 700 job openings combined. It’s critical.

  151. TOModera*

    Accountant, in Canada, in a major city – I went from having a good selection of okay jobs to being flooded in a few months. Change of pay went up, the requirement to have my letters was ignored, and company’s were ready to roll out all the ways their benefits would help too.

    Suffice to say, I ended up with a 15% increase in pay, working from home, and with less hours of work.

  152. Penelope*

    I was let go from my job in March 2020 and feel as though I was told through out the last few years that this was a chance to learn new skills and make a change, so that is what I’ve done. I took 2 UX boot camps, taught myself HTML5, CSS3, and am learning JavaScript and React. I have a BFA from Pratt and want to work in User Interface design but am casting a wide net. I’m applying to about 50 jobs a week, writing individual cover letters for each job and nothing. I’m only looking at entry level jobs but they want 5-7 years (that’s not entry level) I’m applying to jobs with the confidence of a mediocre white guy in cargo pants. I live in NYC and don’t have the finances to pay for a move but I’ve crunched the numbers and can survive on on $42k a year and still pay my student loans. So I’m not even asking for much money. Everyone keeps telling me that these skills are in demand but that’s not my experience. I feel so discouraged and like I just wasted a year and a half of my life. Maybe I should have studied data analysis or tech support instead? I have a pre-existing condition that makes covid a bigger risk for me and every time I think about going back into retail operations I just cry.

    1. Fran Fine*

      What does your portfolio look like? To get these kinds of jobs, you need a strong portfolio showing various examples of design work and research you’ve completed. Are you also applying for remote opportunities? Maybe it would help for you to go on LinkedIn and message some UX designers and ask them if they’d be willing to look at your work and give you some feedback. Also get feedback on your resume because maybe that’s also holding you back.

      1. Penelope*

        I feel as though my portfolio is very strong. I tried to choose projects that show that I understand user flow well and I addressed pain points that folks experience in the real world. I have reached out to some folks through LinkedIn but no responses yet and I’ve been submitting to different head hunting firms. I just feel like I did everything that I was told to do and I still was left behind.

  153. Yellow Springs*

    I work for a state government agency in a city with a rapidly increasing cost of living.
    We’ve had a number of positions open in the last 6 months in my small division, including two entry/mid-level technical positions, and one office manager position. For all these positions, we’ve had far fewer applicants than usual. It has taken much longer to find qualified candidates that are even worth interviewing — in one case, I think the job ad sat for 6 months before we had anyone qualified enough to interview.
    Our assumption is that, for one thing, the low-ish government salaries we are offering, together with the increased cost of living in our city, are not helping. There are comparable private sector positions that are offering more. Plus we are not the most forward-thinking in terms of things like work-from-home policies (we are all on hybrid schedules right now).

  154. Silicon Valley Girl*

    I’m not actively looking, but in the past year, the volume of cold-contacts I get from recruiters (external & in-house) has gone WAY up. There’s long been a steady stream of external recruiters offering very average-sounding contract positions, but what’s new is in-house recruiters looking to fill FT exempt positions. This is in Silicon Valley for creative tech positions (not engineering) with a lot of big-name companies.

  155. OtterB*

    My husband is starting a new job in a few weeks. He had been looking to leave for a year or more, but he’s currently Fed and wanted to stay Fed and not relocate because his line of work requires at least some on site work, so he’s been picky about what he applies to. No nibbles for some time. He applied to 3 in the fall, got one turndown. The one that’s hiring him made a verbal offer a couple of days after a single phone interview with what will be his grand boss. Paperwork for formal offer has been slow but, Fed. They’re currently settling a start date. Salary not an issue because it’s a lateral move in a defined pay scale. The 3rd place he applied called to schedule a phone screen after he’d already accepted the verbal offer and he declined. That one would have been a step up in pay but a longer commute so, a wash.

    The place he’s leaving has been chronically understaffed for years, both in engineers and in skilled trades (pipe fitters, electricians, etc) but it’s perhaps a bit worse than usual.

  156. Don’t Pay Me Less Because of Body Parts*

    I just wrapped up a job search and it was like nothing I’d ever experienced.

    I applied for about 100 jobs (was quite qualified for probably 90%) and did maybe 30 first round interviews from that plus about 10 recruiters found me on their own who I interviewed with. About half my first round interviews turned to second round or beyond. I ended up with two offers.

    A lot of places ghosted me and the one offer that I declined lowballed me (literally the bottom of their tiny range) after saying I was overqualified and how much they’d like to work with me and I’d move up quick if I joined. Another place rejected me after I’d done 5 (!) interviews with them – 3 with the recruiter and 2 others with actual team members. That rejection came after a “cultural fit” interview that I thought went just fine (I stayed on 20 extra minutes because the conversation was flowing and they had more questions than they could get through). That interview was 10 VERY in-depth behavioral questions. For example, one was “What motivates you for work and how do you think that impacts your work and how do you motivate others knowing that people have different motivations.” That was ONE question. “Our culture is very important to us” they’d all say. “Just trust the process” the recruiter kept saying. As a Philadelphia than quote didn’t land well.

    Blessing in disguise to get rejected from that place. The place who eventually offered me the job had a straightforward process – 1 recruiter call, 1 HM call, 3 short round robin chats with the team then one 30 presentation and work submission (fitting for the role). They offered me the top of their range which is over 2x what I currently make and by far the highest of any place I interviewed.

    There are so many places doing wonky things but there are also a lot of places who are using this moment to fix their processes and cultures to attract top talent. This is a win for workers overall, even if job searching is still painful.

  157. Mellow Yellow*

    I was offered a job about a month ago. They offered a decent salary and benefits, but they wanted me to sign an agreement stating I would stay in the job for 2 years and that I’d pay back 40% of my salary if I left before then. I declined.

    They had 3 identical jobs open on this team and only put me through one short interview. They’re desperate to hire but are going the very wrong way with trying to retain their new hires.

    1. Fran Fine*

      but they wanted me to sign an agreement stating I would stay in the job for 2 years and that I’d pay back 40% of my salary if I left before then. I declined.

      WHAT?! This is not a thing!

    3. DJ Abbott*

      This reminds me of arrangements I heard of in the 90s where a company would hire someone and pay for their tuition and in exchange the person hired would have to agree to work there five years or pay back the tuition.
      This isn’t about tuition though. It’s predatory and stupid.

  158. Typing All The Time*

    There have been some in my field (publishing) but for me personally it’s been tricky. There is a lot of good talent out there but I haven’t had much luck with landing a new role. I’ve had two interviews when the HR person never followed up. I applied to another where I wasn’t picked for an interview but they mistakenly sent me an email thanking me for my time.

  159. ghosted by cheapskate*

    In my experience, job postings are more aspirational than they used to be.
    They want more education, more credentials, more experience for (roughly) the same pay they would have offered 5 years ago.

    Here’s a fun story from my own experience: interviewed with a small IT consulting firm. Applied, and was enthusiastically schedule for 3 interviews over the next 3 days. I already do this work, and am somewhat well known for it in my niche. During final interview with CEO, guy asked me what kind of salary I’m making now. I told him it wouldn’t be a fair comparison to this new position for lots of reasons, but wouldn’t budge so I told him my current rate.

    He immediately said “that’s way more than I have set aside for this position”, and said thank you for your time and ended the call. 3 weeks later, I get a linkedin rejection message from him for “not having enough experience”.

    It is my impression that this is all just a race to the bottom, and any excuse they give you other than “I found a better deal as far as skills/$spent” is an outright lie.

  160. Sam*

    I’ve been trying to get out of retail and in my area there a lot of postings for office jobs. The catch is they all pay less than my retail job (sometimes close to five dollars less an hour) and want you to already have experience working in that particular kind of office. I would be working full time and have a lot more responsibilities to not even break even with my current part time job. Less free time and more stress for less money? No thanks.

    1. KP*

      My mom was applying for office jobs and had a similar experience. They act like answering phones and scheduling is some kind of highly specific skill set …

  161. AMD*

    Pharmacies desperate to hire technicians, but not finding anyone with the trifecta of “willing to do the work,” “willing to work the hours,” and “can pass the drug test/aren’t actively stealing from customers.”

    1. AMD*

      *willing to do the work *for the offered salaries* which is honestly super low.

      But every store in my market is understaffed by at least 2 full time people.

    2. Flower necklace*

      If you replace “can pass the drug test” with “has the correct certifications,” that’s pretty much what public education is going through right now. Chronically understaffed. My principal was talking about hiring in December for positions that won’t start until next August.

      The pay is pretty bad, but (at my school, at least) it’s not difficult to pick up extra work – tutor after school, become some kind of coach, teach an extra class or Saturday school . . . But no one wants to do the work or put in the insane hours during the school year that teaching requires.

  162. KR*

    I’ve been applying to remote jobs like crazy. Either rejections or no reply. It’s really demoralizing. Everyone keeps saying there are jobs out there and people are hiring, but if they are I’m either not finding the listings or I’m not impressing them. I hate job searches. Every rejection hurts.

  163. Nikki*

    My husband is the manager of a call center for a retail company and he’s been having a miserable time hiring enough people. He’s been trying for months to fill multiple positions. They’re all entry level positions so he sets up interviews with pretty much everyone who applies since he’s confident he can train them for the job. Probably half the interviews he sets up are no shows. He’s offered jobs to several people only to have them decline the offer because they’ve already found something else. He’s also had several employees quit recently because they found different jobs. He acknowledges that at least part of the problem is salary. He doesn’t think they’re offering enough, even after he was able to get everyone raises a few months ago, but the CEO won’t agree to it, so they’re continuing to lose people to companies with better pay. He’s been working 60 hour weeks for the last few months to help cover the enormous amount of work and he doesn’t see an end in sight until they can either find more people willing to accept a job or he can convince his boss to raise the salary for these positions.

  164. Don’t Pay Me Less Because of Body Parts*

    *As a Philadelphian, that quote didn’t land well

    Gotta get that sentence right

  165. wendelenn*

    My 18-year-old high school senior is applying at all the fast food places that have had “HIRING” banners out for months now. No calls back, no responses, no interviews. I am not sure what to do to help him.

    1. Jules the 3rd*

      I’m seeing a lot of ‘interviews weekdays from x to y’ in my area. He might try walking up to the store with resume at those hours. It feels like ‘gumption’ but overworked managers are going to go with least work required.

      He could also go retail, or try something out of the box. Maybe search job listings in your area for ‘will train’?

      Also, tap into your network – I’ve had a lot of friends who work for small / medium businesses who post ‘we need semi-skilled / unskilled workers!’ on facebook. Even short term gigs will help his resume, and help him figure out what he wants to do.

      Good luck to him!

  166. Mitford*

    I’m a senior proposal manager for a government contractor in the DC area and get hit up by recruiters even though I’m not actively looking. I changed companies in July and had not problems finding a new position.

  167. Claims adjuster*

    I work for an auto insurance company that’s been struggling to hire for a couple years now. We’ve been in a spiral of unprecedented growth -> not being able to hire fast enough -> the employees struggle to keep up with the “temporary” increased workload and quit, leaving more openings to fill. After a brief lull at the beginning of the pandemic, the workload exploded again (coupled with worker burnout) and they’re struggling to keep us fully staffed again, more than ever before.

    The company takes it seriously and has added 3 days (yearly) of PTO across the board, increased starting pay (locally anyway) by $5k, and improved our health and other benefits, based on what employees wanted in surveys. They also changed hiring practices to get candidates into their roles much faster instead of losing them to other offers.

    I think they’ll continue to struggle to hire for a long time because the jobs are hard and there is still a mismatch with corporate expectations of how much work employees can or are willing to handle, but at least the company understands that they gave to be competitive instead of whining that people are lazy.

  168. Dino*

    My company says they’re trying to hire tons of people…. Except they pay a lot less than what competitors pay, even after a substantial pay raise at the end of 2021. So we’re in the trenches and downing in work, but higher ups don’t care and claim they’re doing everything they can. They also ended all the flexibility they allowed at the start of COVID, despite us being in a WORSE position now than at the start of the pandemic.

    I would apply for the only competing company in my area, except that they are much more invasive than my current company. I’m talking drug testing professional, certification-having employees for cannabis and micromanaging when you’re allowed to take a piss break, which to be quite blunt I’m not willing to deal with even for more money. Part of the reason I quit retail and got a degree was because I was sick of being treated like a high schooler, not gonna go back to that even for more money.

  169. ContractsKiller*

    I stopped applying for jobs mid-September 2021. I am still randomly receiving response emails. They are about 50/50 between rejections or noting the position has been closed out.

    I’m an attorney with a little less than 20 years experience with many marketable skills. I followed ALL your advice and carefully cultivated the positions where I chose to apply. I still only received two interviews. Most position descriptions were for a perfect unicorn of skill combinations that maybe one or two people possess worldwide. When I reviewed the description for the job I left, I wouldn’t qualify for that job now. My point is that I believe lots of companies want to hire, but they want the human equivalent of an out-of-the-box solution that can solve all their problems and do everything they want with minimal training or lag time. It isn’t realistic and I think a lot of job searchers are wasting their time applying because companies aren’t willing to hire someone almost competent and then train them up to competency.

  170. Homebody*

    I work in structural engineering. COVID made an already bad labor shortage much worse; just about every company is hiring and every company is operating on a skeleton crew. I’m doing the work of about three people at my job and am absolutely exhausted. I was talking to a VP who works at a different company in my field who said, “We’re so desperate for people that as long as you have a pulse, we’ll take you!”

    Incidentally skilled labor (welders, plumbers, crane operators, etc.) is suffering from a similar problem of a field with an already bad shortage made worse by COVID.

    I’ll be honest, when I see articles about labor shortages in the news I attribute them to retail and restaurants jobs…where people are fighting for better working conditions. The articles feel like crocodile tears to me, like maybe you’d be able to find people if you paid them better? Or gave them safer working conditions? *shrug*

  171. Software Engineer*

    In my niche the job market is really good right now for mid-level candidates. I’ve joked that everyone is playing musical chairs with their senior engineers. Lots of attrition last year which orgs are trying to make up for with hiring.

    I hear anecdotally that job market is kind of dire for entry-level people. Shops are having to rebuild their bench of experienced people and don’t have the capacity to train folks who won’t be directly productive quickly. (It’s not uncommon for engineer salaries to double in the first five years of your career, since early in your career, good companies are hiring you mostly to have an option on your work once you’re seasoned.)

    At my partner’s large tech company they largely can’t hire right now because their central recruiting function is understaffed, from a mix of organizational incompetence and having many recruiters resign last year. (Not uncommon to get hit by a wave of technical recruiter resignations, it happens periodically, due to the nature of what recruiters are good at.)

    This is more speculative but there also seems to be a lot of variation in how much people are aware of the “going rate” for software engineers now. Work I might have expected to pay $150k 5 years ago, now I would expect $250k or more, but lots of folks are happy to get $180k for that work. (Reasonably! It’s a lot of money! My industry is ridiculous!)

  172. I Ship It*

    I regularly see job listings for positions at or above my current title listed for significantly less than I currently make, and I am still below market average.

    Another thing that flags for me is that the header in a listing says remote, but then you get into the description it clearly states “must be on site during these hours every day”.

    Both of those things are a turn-off for me. I am not actively applying to jobs, but keep an eye open for opportunities as my field is growing and progressing quickly, and many positions above mine are well suited to remote or hybrid work. The pay varies wildly though, and for the most part is below average, at least in my area.

    Third is benefits. I have fantastic benefits right now. Last time I was actively job hunting benefits were a very big part of my consideration. If they couldn’t match or improve upon the benefits I had, they didn’t make the cut, period, and I think a lot of people in the market right now are taking that into account- how do the benefits compare? How much am I going to lose if they don’t compare, or if the costs are higher? Will it still be worth it? Companies that skimp on benefits (and I am talking basics, like medical/vision/dental, 401k, that sort of thing, not on site clinic and gym though that would be awesome) are not going to appeal to those of us who have really good benefits in our current positions.

  173. That's Dr. Faustus To You*

    Hiring for an entry level staff position in public higher ed, and just realized that Walmart is now offering an equivalent hourly rate. Literally. Embarrassingly small application pool at least somewhat a result of that. Also, higher ed is bananas.

  174. Just Me*

    I just hired a just above entry level marketing role. I’d offered it to a lady who declined because she already had another offer. I gave the candidate I hired a bit over what she was looking for to make the offer more enticing. I had a few candidates drop out of consideration because they found other roles. I am very happy with my new employee, but I did make the decision faster than I would have previously.

    One candidate dropped out before being interviewed. It seemed like she was pretty burnt out from the job hunt, which was sad because I liked the energy on her resume (she took a shift during our interview time at a coffee shop).

    My takeaway: don’t be slow because the good people are being hired fast. Don’t be cheap because better offers are out there.

  175. Snow Globe*

    I recently job-hunted for the first time in a couple of decades, so I can’t really compare my experience with “before”. But the process was surprisingly easy; I got two very good offers within a few weeks, and continued to get interview invitations from other companies after I had accepted an offer. The most surprising thing I noticed was that in all the companies I interviewed with, they were selling me on the job rather than trying to assess my qualifications. I had almost no questions about my experience; everyone seemed to accept that I was qualified based on my resume, and they spent the whole time telling me how great their company is to work for.

  176. fake name for this one*

    My company is struggling to hire. The job is quite well-paid, both objectively and by industry standards. The sticking point is that they insist on some level of industry experience even for the most junior roles on the team. I should note that even the junior roles are very well paid and have cool work to do. The more senior folks are all friendly and training new hires has never been a problem. For the technical level we expect every serious candidate has at least a master’s so it’s not like we are at risk to hire a teen who doesn’t know what it means to be professional or meet deadlines. The ridiculous thing is that “industry experience” can be as little as a three-month internship! For that little experience, we are eliminating A LOT of people from our applicant pool.

    1. Ori*

      “My company is struggling to hire… For the technical level we expect every serious candidate has at least a master’s.”

      1. fake name for this one*

        I mean the job is in high tech and pays $120k starting in a LCOL area. We’re not expecting a master’s for tool operators but for people who do R&D on multi-million dollar contracts.

        1. Ori*

          If it’s vocationally appropriate that’s totally fair. I have a bit of a bugbear about companies requiring them for low paying roles.

          1. fake name for this one*

            I do, too, and the degree is less important than technical knowledge and ability to learn, which varies wildly among people with the same piece of paper, especially for people without industry experience which is what my original comment was about. :-/

            1. tell me more!*

              I do IT work/software dev in pharma industry… and wanting to move to a more rural setting.
              If you don’t want to share details here, could you email me at 7894NF731@protonmail.com?
              Would love to find out more!

    2. tell me more!*

      I would really like to know more about these opportunities!
      I’ve got ~3 years experience doing IT/software dev in pharma… and currently looking for a more LCOL area.

      Could you share more information? If you don’t want to do it here, I have a throwaway email address you can use (if I can get it past the spam filters!)

      7894NF731 [at] protonmail [dot] com

  177. mreasy*

    Tons of jobs in my field and we’ve had to move really fast with competitive applicants as they’re generally receiving multiple offers. I suspect this is behind my significant raise as well.

  178. Emmar*

    It took me about 3 weeks from first looking to signing the offer letter to get a new job. I work in tech and have some valuable certificates and even more valuable experience. From what I’ve seen, there are plenty of jobs in my industry for mid-level or senior roles though it’s hard to find anything for entry/junior level roles. Even with certificates they still want at least 2 years of experience.

  179. Anon for This*

    My kid, just out of high school and waiting out COVID before going to college, can’t find a full-time job. The offers he has received (including the one he accepted) are for part-time so they don’t have to pay benefits – some have said that straight out. Talking to friends with kids similarly situated, they are seeing the same thing. And even for part the part-time jobs, many employers expect to be chased/begged by the applicants. Put in an application, no response. Call to follow-up, they call back, schedule an interview, that is often re-scheduled. After the interview, several calls from the applicant before they actually hire. (This includes those who have signs up begging for employees. Appears to me that many of those signs are really intended to allow employers to provide poor service and blame it on others.)

    1. Clefairy*

      I would argue that they don’t expect folks to chase after jobs, but that usually managers at retail/food locations (I’m making an assumption here based on the fact that your kid is fresh out of high school without work experience, but apologies if I’m off-base!) are usually exceptionally spread thin, especially now, and are given little to no training on how to manage their location’s recruiting. Doesn’t make it any less frustrating, but I’m assuming it’s something a bit less nefarious at play

  180. GrouchyLibrarian*

    Libraries continue to be essential to the community while also not paying FT librarians enough, or taking a FT job and splitting it into 2 or more PT positions so they can avoid paying benefits.
    I’ve been looking for a new librarian job (currently employed but in a toxic/boring place) for over 5 years and see maybe 1 posting a year that I qualify for and wouldn’t be a substantial pay cut.
    I’ve been a FT librarian for a decade.

    1. LCH*

      same as archivist. was hoping the amazing job market i keep hearing about would mean i could get a FT archives job instead of continual grant jobs.

  181. Anonymous Pygmy Possum*

    My company is really eager to hire but doesn’t seem to be doing anything to increase the number of quality applicants. The person in charge of our recruiting also is a full time developer, and he’s not allowed to use any recruiters or post job ads on job-searching sites – we post our job ads on college portals or on our website, and we’re not a well-known company and we’re somewhere not really well-known for having a lot of similar jobs, so this doesn’t really help. This is not a new problem, but is exacerbated by the hiring shortage. The pay and benefits are not the problem (they’re pretty fantastic, actually) but the company itself is frustrating for other reasons.

  182. MagnusArchivist*

    My academic library (large east coast city) has SO MANY vacant positions, but some of them are holdovers from before the pandemic. Hiring was hard before due to reputation — if you’re local & plugged into professional networks, you don’t want to work here unless you’re new or desperate — but it’s impossible now due to a few factors.
    1. our budget got slashed, so even if we wanted to rehire for an empty role at the same salary + responsibilities, we can’t (or that money has to come from somewhere, like our journal subscriptions). So instead we’re rewriting positions to do more or the same for lower pay.
    2. so. many. people. left. But since money is so tight, vacant position are being combined into bizarre and impossible unicorn jobs that experienced people don’t want and inexperienced people aren’t qualified for.
    3. Because of staff time (did I mention we’re all doing the jobs of 3 0r 4 FTEs?) we just don’t have the capacity to run more than 2 searches at once, even if there are 9 vacant positions.
    4. Because of academia, searches and hiring takes forever.

    It’s grim out there/in here.

  183. frustrated teacher*

    Teacher here, looking to leave education (where people are fleeing in droves and not being replaced because of the current climate in America – underpaid, over criticized, exposed to COVID literally daily, etc.).

    We can’t find teachers because the job is literally thankless and less qualified applicants are applying.

    I have put out a bunch of applications to jobs that are supposed to be good for teachers to move into and have heard crickets (and I follow the AMA guidelines and have had friends in HR currently check all my stuff). I think the “there are a lot of jobs” doesn’t really apply to mid-career professionals.

  184. Toby Flenderson*

    I’ve been on both the job searching side and the recruiting side this year. Based on my experience I think the difference we are seeing is a change in the mindset of job seekers. People are much more willing to quit their jobs when they are unhappy and walk away from the negotiating table when an offer is less than what they want. I think this is a good thing, although it does make recruiting more work. Job seekers know that they are in demand. I hope we see a big shift in our culture as a result of this in labor’s favor.

  185. FancyPantsMaGee*

    Due to working in education/non-profits, it didn’t seem wise to search until vaccines to start looking, seeing as so many instituions implemented hiring freezes or laid off staff. Around the summer there was an influx of institutions looking to un-freeze their hiring, or hire back positions they eliminated/fired. Towards the fall/end of year, I received offers, but they were extremely low. Others had extensive interview processes (3-5 interviews for relatively low level to mid level positions) and the results were still either low pay or ghosting me completely. Then the new variant popped up, and several positions seemed to dissapear. The amount of job posts from this sector also fell off a cliff in my area, a major city. I don’t think things will improve until Covid does.

  186. Selina Luna*

    I work as a teacher. And we are VERY short of teachers right now. In some areas, there isn’t much of a problem, but the more rural school districts and the high-poverty urban school districts are suffering quite a lot right now. I live in Colorado, but work in New Mexico, and I can tell you that Colorado as a whole is hurting for teachers right now, but that is because they badly underpay teachers. I’m making more money in my current rural, poor NM district than I would in the Denver school district, even though the cost of living in Denver is nearly 5 times the cost of living here.

    1. frustrated teacher*

      Fellow teacher – with inflation, I’ll be actually making LESS money this year than last year (purchasing power). It’s wild (I’m in California).

  187. Carolyn*

    I think it depends on the industry you’re looking for. In mine (engineering), I was offered 5 jobs basically overnight after I changed my linked-in profile saying I had left my last job. I wasn’t even searching as we were anticipating a military PCS. I interviewed some of them but it was a formality and they they all said before it began they already had an offer drawn up.

    But as things change (especially in the military life), we did not PCS. In fact, my husband’s orders flat out ended for the military draw-down. So I took one of the jobs that were offered previously. I am happy there.

    But my husband – totally different story. He is a career Officer with 21 years. Lt Col. Lots of awards. The govt contractors are being very underhanded. Saying they had jobs, then they don’t, then they do. Then offering insulting salaries (think $50K in the DC area). This is likely due to the ever-changing government contracts and funding. For one job he showed up on the first day of work and HR was like “oh yeah we forgot to call you and say the job is gone now.”

    In the civilian sector, he’s striking out also. It appears they have lots of openings and like to interview but then there isn’t budget or they decided to just put that work on an existing staff member (that poor person doing two jobs). Added to that the civilian world just doesn’t understand what military officers do and what they’re good at. He has had his resume revamped to use better terminology but still nothing.

    Even trying to get a temporary job isn’t working. They require full availability, like be available during all operating hours 7 days a week. Cannot allow him to pick a consistent schedule. And won’t pay enough to cover the cost of childcare. Telling him he is “overqualified” whatever that means.

  188. Sarra N. Dipity*

    My company is hiring like mad. We doubled (200-ish to 400-ish) in 2021. We have multiple people starting every week.

    Most of these roles, though, are mid-to-high level; no entry level positions. Mobility is definitely easier if you’re further along in your career.

    [openings in market research/data science/media/social/software engineering at this point; if you’re looking in that area, reply and I can share some links]

    1. LDN Layabout*

      It’s fascinating how everyone talking about data oriented work is saying the market is white hot, but then you need data work in so many sectors and it’s still a fairly new (and loosely defined) field so it makes sense.

      (Before anyone jumps on me, fairly new in terms of how widespread the use has become. The field itself has been around a long time)

    2. ER*

      Hey I’d take any links for data science/engineering roles that you have. Currently a data scientist making a switch to data engineering, but I have several former and current coworkers trying to make a move who are always interested in more resources.

      1. Sarra N. Dipity*

        ER – (and anyone else) – you can e-mail sarra.johanssen at gmail dot com and I’ll hook you up (staying anon w/r/t my company [and honestly my name; sarra’s my online-only alias])

  189. Sarah55555*

    I landed in my job midway through last year after about a year of looking (I was previously in a Covid decimated industry). People may have been hiring like crazy, but I didn’t see it at all, I lucked into this job because I had a combination of Excel savvy skills and customer service. I have a decade of experience doing all sorts of things after running a fitness biz for a decade (heavy into email marketing and metrics, scheduling, customer service, general basic data work). And I could only get interviews for an Admin, where inevitably the person interviewing me would complain about what a difficult time they were having finding good hires, and then proceed to only ask about my previous Admin experience from 13 years prior and ignore every single other skill I have. I applied for countless entry level jobs that I couldn’t even make it past the ATS. Interviewed with people who spent the whole time talking themselves and then inevitably didn’t think I was a ‘fit’. Did tech interviews where they have pre-chosen “behavioral” questions that fit horribly with my resume and no relevance to the job itself. It was ROUGH. Yes, there are jobs out there – I could drive a school bus for the district and be hired in a heartbeat. And I did do remote customer service jobs to fill the gap. But for an actual “career” kind of job, it’s still the same challenges getting past the ATS, the same interviewers’ bias, the same hiring managers that want super specific experience.

  190. Becky*

    I have a college age nephew who spent most of the semester (September-Decemberish) applying for a lot of entry level retail positions and submitted dozens of applications but still wasn’t able to find a job for months.

    At my own company–I moved to a different team 5 months ago and I think they still haven’t been able to back fill my position–we’ve been having trouble finding qualified applicants. The position is Software QA which doesn’t necessarily require a specific degree or education background, but does require a certain mindset. We can teach the technical side but the critical thinking and problem solving are more difficult to teach and is more difficult to identify in a candidate.

  191. Gracely*

    I work in higher ed, and our campus is bleeding staff positions, and they’re mostly not being replaced. This is probably specific to my university, however; a lot of the people who’ve left found positions at other nearby institutions. We have a lot of areas that are short-staffed, and will remain short-staffed because the admin won’t replace people. They axed a bunch of support staff in 2020, and then started hiring a bunch of VPs.

    The new approach has been…interesting. Especially since in one meeting, staff were told “Either you choose to be satisfied or you don’t.”

    I have noticed that a lot of the positions that remain open in my field (at other institutions) are laughably low salaries–wanting people to do a lot more for less than my starting salary 10 years ago, with strict degree requirements. Those positions aren’t getting filled.

    1. JS*

      I’m seeing this too- both overall and at my institution. Between practices of not keeping up with the market, giving low ball merit raises that don’t even match COL (hello salary compression!), budget cuts for COVID that other area Universities did not do, we are falling behind some other colleges in the area. We were working to catch up before COVID and now we’re so far behind we may have to start over a market evaluation again (many are hoping they raise us up to what they were working on before while they re-evaluate instead of making us all wait to start from scratch).

  192. Felicity*

    I work in IT for a large bank, and I’ve had three teammates leave in the last few months for all-remote roles at large tech companies, with 50+% increases in salary. All-remote is allowed on our team and the team culture is great (I think), but it is harder to move up at my company depending on your skill set. I think now that many companies are offering a full remote option, it has shaken up the job market (technically I’ve always been capable of doing my job remotely but often that would mean a sacrifice for my career progression). My company is in a major US city but without a large tech market so we used to be able to pay below average salaries (that correlate with the low COL) because we didn’t have much competition. Since our attrition has gone up, I’ve received a 12% “salary adjustment” as part of a company-wide evaluation.

    For hiring, HR is backlogged due to all the attrition so we’ve only been able to hire for one of those three roles so far – the others are in the queue. I’m not sure what kind of applicants were getting because I’m not involved in interviewing but the guy we hired in the first spot is doing great.

    I’d be actively looking right now if I had the bandwidth – I have a ton going on outside of work so I’m taking the consistency for now.

  193. Lindsey*

    I am struggling in my job search. I have about 5 years experience in my industry. I’m finding job postings and applying, but still getting ignored by employers. I do wonder if these positions are being filled through internal promotion instead of external hires, but obviously with experience I don’t want to have to start over again in an entry-level position. I’ve spent most of the past year and a half job searching (relocated for my husband’s job in June 2020 and then again a couple months ago; was employed full-time for 4 months in that stretch) and I am so, so tired of it.

    1. Lindsey*

      I should add, I was offered one position in my field (corporate retail merchandising), but it was an independent contractor position – no benefits, get paid every 60 days after submitting an invoice but the manager said she would try to get every 30 days approved for me if I was interested, would have to do extra paperwork to get myself set up – and the high end of the pay range was less than I made in my last two positions. The manager was a friend of a friend, and I really appreciated them trying to help me out, but I need something more stable, and it didn’t seem right to take it knowing that I’d still be searching for a full-time employee position the whole time.

  194. Amanda*

    In my industry employers are behaving terribly. I have had multiple interviews (and a few second interviews) and have then been ghosted, not just not hired but never to hear from them ever again, even after I follow up. I’ve been looking somewhat causally for a year and a half, received one offer (that I turned down for many reasons), 9 interviews, countless more phone screenings. I am getting the impression very often that these companies don’t have a good idea of what they want for the role, and also want someone more experienced but don’t want to pay appropriately. (I have 4 years experience plus a masters in my field). Another thing I have noticed is places advertising positions as fully remote, and then that not actually being the case, which is very frustrating as well.

    1. Mia*

      Same happened to me last year – multiple rounds of interviews, only to be completely ghosted by the company. This happened four times. It takes two seconds to send an email that says “Hey we’re going in a different direction, but thanks for your time”…

  195. Really Anon For This*

    UK based: My employer has really messed up in the current market. We’re gov adjacent but their pay structure doesn’t match what you get in partner orgs so people have been leaving left and right.

    Currently, two big partner orgs are hiring analysts at every level, at around 5-7k more at lateral levels. I have an offer coming from one (verbal’s been made, just waiting on the letter) and while I expect to earn more with a promotion, it’s a bigger jump than I’d expect in the public sector due to the issues at my current org.

    The band below mine in the new org? Multiple positions open, as in tens.

    Speaking to friends in other sectors, everyone’s recruiting for analysts right now, from your 99% of your work is Excel all the way up to the more data scientist oriented jobs.

      1. Really Anon For This*

        Take a look at what’s out there!

        My own skillset is in the SQL/PBI arena with some basic stats but there’s definitely other opportunities out there.

        (With the caveat that the roles I’ve been looking at are not entry level so it depends on how you can spin your current experience, not sure how the entry level market is)

        1. Ori*

          My background is predominantly paid search. Some programmatic and coding, a lot of high level Excel and statistical analysis / reporting. I’m definitely stronger on the analytic aspect, but I’m also considering a coding bootcamp.

          1. Really Anon For This*

            To be honest it sounds like you would already be a pretty strong candidate, even without the coding aspect of it. If you can get yourself somewhere with decent training available as part of their L&D I’d say that would be more useful than a bootcamp.

            (I’d do a lot of research, coding bootcamps can be good and they can be bad. And both categories are expensive)

  196. midhart90*

    Here in New England, there are plenty of job openings, but they vary wildly in quality. I’m reasonably satisfied with my current job but certainly wouldn’t rule out making a move if the price was right. I am frequently contacted by recruiters, and the recurring theme is that most prospective employers would struggle to match my current salary, never mind beat it by the 15-25% it would take for me to seriously consider a change.

  197. HotSauce*

    Husband has been searching for the past several months, here is what he has run into:
    – Part time only, though availability should be 24/7
    – Laughably low salary for a position that requires a minimum of 4 yr degree & X yrs of experience
    – Dozens of resumes that he has received NO response on what-so-ever
    – Wanting in office positions only, despite incredibly high covid rates in our area
    – Group interviews (?!)
    – Bonuses offered on job listing are actually impossible to get
    – No shows on Zoom interviews

    1. Ori*

      I’ve never understood the ‘part time only, total availability’ concept. It stops you from earning enough to live on, and from getting benefits, because the DWP mandate that you need to be looking for ‘reasonable hours’ to qualify. Unless you’re being fully supported by someone else, it’s impossible.

  198. Lorelai Gilmore*

    My current employer sent an email the other day saying that the employee referral bonus was doubled if they recommended someone that got hired for several positions that they have had trouble filling. I will be leaving soon for a new position and the hiring manager at the new place asked me if I was applying elsewhere, because they wanted to know how fast they had to work to put together an offer. It seems that they a couple of experiences where they waited too long to make offers with other applicants (as in, waiting too many hours, not too many days) to make an offer and the applicants had accepted another position. Of course, that could be the applicant’s way of saying they weren’t interested, but who knows. I know that when I started looking around I got a lot of interest and am still being contacted by employers.

  199. digital-a11y-anon*

    Going anon for this one, because my workplace doesn’t know I’ve been even casually looking at jobs for myself, but I’m a regular reader . . .

    Anyways, I’m in a niche tech field (digital accessibility) and count as “experienced” for this field since I have 2 years of dedicated work as an accessibility tester. In the past 4 months, I’ve had 3-4 cold calls from recruiters and have seen a ton of jobs up in my field. Some are really out of line with the market, but even ones that are helping to set the market standards for pay have been pretty constantly advertising and offering their current employees bonuses for referring successful hires. This is a field, however, that has been getting a lot of coverage in business news due to increased numbers of lawsuits focused on inaccessible websites (funny how everyone going remote really highlighted those), so it’s where digital security was a few years ago . . . everyone suddenly realizes they need to cover their rears and so they’re scrambling to bring in experts, even if they have *no* intention of really making changes. I keep warning my boss that our salaries are too low for my team and that we risk losing people (which would mean having to train new employees, something we do, thankfully), but the boss has been moving very slowly and conservatively on raising our salaries. As for myself, I’m doing the “lazy applying” thing where I only apply to positions that look really interesting to me; of three applications I sent out since Dec. 15th, I’ve had two initial interviews scheduled within a couple days of submitting the applications, so I’d say that if you’ve got qualifications, this field is a good one to be in right now.

    On the up side: if anyone here is in front end web development, I strongly recommend you start learning about digital accessibility–that’s a really good way to get yourself a solid position that will force you to learn very marketable skills. Demonstrating that you know the importance of semantic HTML and that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) exist will be enough to get your resume/cover letter a second look.

    1. LDN Layabout*

      I was talking to someone recently about the costs of recruitment and honestly I find it wild that companies don’t put more effort into retention.

      (This is from the point of view of a STEM company with a specialised focus so recruitment is probably harder than ‘we get 100s of applications’ but the cost of 50k to recruit overall is…mindblowing)

  200. The Smiling Pug*

    My dad is nearing the end of his contract at his current company but has been fielding calls from recruiters for the past month or so. Hopefully, Current Company will extend his contract, but the whole situation has my mom worried, who’s retired and can’t work due to disability.

  201. JMR*

    I work in biotech, and the number of LinkedIn messages and such I have gotten from recruiters has gone through the roof, but the quality of these contacts has decreased. It used to be that I only received these messages occasionally, but when it did happen, the recruiter was professional and really understood the field and was contacting me about a relevant role in line with my experience. Nowdays, I am getting bombarded with calls and messages from recruiters, but more often than not, I am either wholly unqualified or massively overqualified for the role. Scientific research is quite specialized, and it is clear from my LinkedIn bio what my speciality is, but I am getting contacted about positions related to anything and everything that seemingly falls under the umbrella of “science,” whether I am qualified or not. This means I am sometimes contacted about scientific roles outside my area of research expertise (i.e., I am not a pharmacologist, or a toxicologist, or a virologist) but it also means I am contacted about other types of roles in the pharmaceutical industry, such as roles in Regulatory or Clinical Affairs, by recruiters who obviously do not understand that these are specialized roles that are entirely different from the scientific role I have (and in some cases, that require specific degrees or certifications that I clearly do not have). It seems like these recruiters don’t have enough experience to understand the different tpes of roles in industry. In addition, I am getting more and more contacts about positions that are several levels below where I’m at, such positions that require a Bachelor’s degree and 3-5 years of experience, while I have a PhD and 15+ years of experience. You can just tell these recruiters don’t understand the field very well and are just sending out 10000 LinkedIn messages to anyone they think is even remotely relevant.

    1. JMR*

      I’m not sure what my point is, hahaha. It’s just a change I’ve noticed over the past year or so.

      1. Lora*

        I have seen this also, and when I asked a few of these recruiters why on earth they are contacting me of all people, the answer was basically “you never know if someone is desperate to leave a bad boss/company.”

    2. similar experience*

      Hard agree. The number of contacts I receive boggles the mind, but they are just shotgun approach rather than targeted. One day it’s something Epic/EHR related, the next it’s liquid handler programming.

      I just deleted my linkedin because I don’t have time to deal with it.

  202. R*

    I changed roles three months ago. I work in a niche area of a broad sector. They didn’t have many qualified applicants, but did have a high number of applicants overall. They said that had to filter through the applications more than usual to find those who met the job description.

    I’m still in probation, but much happier. I agreed to undertake some additional tasks, when I started (they were in line with my role and covered an area I like). I unexpectedly was paid an additional 20% of my salary for the months I did this work. The role came with better benefits (more leave, sick pay, 15% pay increase).

    I applied for three roles, which in the job descriptions I was more than qualified for. Two didn’t acknowledge my application and my current role was the third.

    I was miserable in my last role and I would encourage those hunting to do so. The right job will find you.

  203. Jessie*

    My husband is a QA engineer, and was laid off two years ago when lockdown first happened, along with 80 other people across our company. He has yet to find a job, despite using the time to learn how to code.

    Meanwhile, myself and my peers (product marketing, content writers) have continued to get interviews and job offers.

    Suffice to say, I think it is heavily dependant on the right overlap of skills and industry need.

    1. digital-a11y-anon*

      Does your husband know any HTML or CSS, or is that something he would be willing to learn from one of the resources out there (like freecodecamp)? If so, he should really *really* look into digital accessibility work; even as a beginning in accessibility, his past work in QA would probably make his resume stand out. There are a ton of jobs in the field right now, and even ones that say that require 2-5 years of accessibility experience will be thrilled to train the right person. Knowing the basics of HTML and CSS and being able to clearly document problems and make recommendations are the main skills that are needed.

      1. Jessie*

        I don’t know if he’s thought about that, I’ll let him know, thank you so much! He does know HTML/CSS; it’s more the database/backend stuff he doesn’t have experience with that is causing the problems.

        1. digital-a11y-anon*

          “He does know HTML/CSS; it’s more the database/backend stuff he doesn’t have experience with that is causing the problems.”

          He should *definitely* look into digital accessibility, then! We mostly work with HTML, a bit with CSS, and JavaScript (JS) is a nice-to-have. People can learn ARIA (“Accessible Rich Internet Applications”, the accessibility-specific markup) on the job. If he wants more information, he should check out some of the digital accessibility forums–Digitala11y.com in particular has a good list that includes a truly excellent Slack server on their /accessibility-forums-roundup page.

    2. Becky*

      That’s actually interesting–my company has been in desperate need for QA people for years–we’re having trouble finding qualified people. Right now my company has one listing for QA Automation Engineer, one for Test Automation Engineer and two for Senior Software QA & Testing Analyst. They aren’t actually listed as remote though I know they recently hired someone who is on the other side of the country. We also have been bleeding Developers for years but it accelerated in the past two years–Developers are a hot commodity.

      Down side: The company has good benefits but does not keep salaries competitve.

      1. Jessie*

        That’s wild. He’s got a few years’ experience in QA/QA Automation and nothing, and he expected better results from engineering, even as a junior dev, but it seems everyone is looking for more experience than he has in the latter, and no one is looking for the former. It’s super frustrating for him.

    3. Ali + Nino*

      Interesting, but the marketing/content people – what are their offers like? Im just guessing engineers can easily make 2x their salary, am I totally off-base?

      1. Jessie*

        Pretty good, honestly. I’m currently supporting our mortgage and 3 pets on my salary alone (but I’m in a socialized health care country). That said, he self taught himself engineering precisely for that reason, but I think that’s more *experienced* devs, which is what everyone seems to want.

  204. You Can't Pronounce It*

    Two sides.

    Current company has issues about getting qualified applicants. Used to get 40 applications for a job and only advertised on our company site. Now advertising on Indeed and still only receiving maybe 20 applications, but only 10 qualified. Then can only get 2-3 to return calls for an interview. Company is not willing to increase pay ($14 for labor intensive jobs in all kinds of weather), offer flexible schedules (for the positions that can accommodate because not fair to other positions), nor offer work from home (even though we did it when the pandemic first hit). Company will not give, but is complaining on one is applying.

    Good news! Leaving toxic company for new job! I wanted out so bad, but can’t afford a pay cut. I found a new position that topped out at what I make now. I told them I was good with their maximum and they still came back and raised their max to give me a small raise due to my experience and matching my current vacation time so I won’t lose any! I will get to work from home full time for the foreseeable future with the understanding they do plan to go to 3 days in the office once the pandemic is over, but no timeline as of yet.

  205. margaret*

    I’ve applied to more than twenty jobs since June, all full-time remote and all across the US, all that I was definitely very qualified for, and got two rejections and ghosted by the rest. The only one I heard back from and have a second interview coming up for is with my current employer (a major university) that I am just praying they will approve for full-time remote.

  206. Venti vanilla latte breve*

    I am currently employed, but have been seriously job hunting for about two months. My experience has been mixed – three interviews out of 12-15 jobs I have applied for. For additional context – I have been working at home full-time for five + years. I am only applying for roles that provide a salary range and specifically call out that it is remote only work.

    In my area (large Midwestern city), I am seeing more remote or hybrid jobs than ever before. I am also seeing more employers provide a salary range in the job description, which is fantastic. (I do not live in a state that is required to provide salary ranges in the job description.) Many job listings are requiring proof of Covid vaccination upon a job offer.

    On the interviewing side, I personally had two interviews that happened very quickly after I initially applied. The holiday season did not slow down some employers, as some have figured out that you will lose out on good talent if you dont move quickly. For reference, this was a very large Fortune 100 company.

    On the employer side, my company has lost TONS of talent since the fall. They cant hire fast enough. They have lost out on a lot of good talent because their hiring processes drag out, and good talent gets other offers. My company (another very large company) isnt known for paying well either, although that wasnt my personal experience (got a pretty large pay bump when I joined two years ago). Word gets around and the talent pool hasnt been great to choose from.

    1. You Can't Pronounce It*

      This. When I was searching, I would only consider positions that listed a salary range as well. My state also does not require it. I did not necessarily care if work from home was full time, but did want it as an option or hybrid. I ended up WFH that will eventually be hybrid and the hiring process from start to offer took 2 weeks during Christmas time.

      Company I’m leaving doesn’t allow a position to be posted until it is vacant. Must be posted for 2 full weeks. Then you can review resumes and figure out who you want to interview. Must go through a big process that last time took probably 6 weeks and then still had to do background checks and things before they could start. I filled in for both jobs for about 3 months and we new the person was retiring 9 months before she actually left.

  207. Max Floof*

    Reading these has made me fell better about my experience thus far!! I’ve been job searching for over a year, at times more intense than others. I am trying to change fields, which contributes to some of my struggle thus far. Switching from a customer service like job (thats often misinterpreted as nothing more than administrative) in public safety to a job using more of my data analyst skills is always going to be a bit of a struggle. I’ve applied to ~100 jobs, gotten between 5-10 interviews… 1 progressed to 2nd round coming up this week (fingers crossed), 1 was internal that went to a recently retired employee, 1 progressed to a background stage with so many hoops it should have qualified as an exercise regime, several others were phone screenings that ended quickly once salary was discussed.

    I make decent money for my job now, but live in a very high COL area. I’m willing to take an more entry level job to build my skills and get practical work experience in the data languages I’ve studied, but the jobs entry jobs I’m seeing want years of experience (maybe a new college grad would have?), and/or are waaaaaaay below livable around here.

    My job is hemorrhaging people; several have gone for lateral jobs, others have been able to up their skills and get jobs in remote or less stressful fields. I’m seeing a ton of entry level or lower paying jobs being advertised to higher level jobs; very little middle non-management.

    TLDR: lots of low pay postings with unrealistic expectations and/or experience required. Live in DC area. Currently in public safety but attempting to move to data analyst roles.

    1. ER*

      Hey, I’m a data scientist (currently aiming to move to data engineering) also in DC. Let me know if you want any advice for this field or for specific job openings or resume suggestions, I’d be happy to help.

      1. Max Floof*

        I would love that!!!! I’m definitely not at the Data Scientist level yet, but want to expand on my skills! What is the best way to get in touch?

  208. Librarianarino*

    Working in libraries and casually applying-

    I’m getting lots of interviews, getting interviewed for most things I apply for, getting second interviews, but no offers yet (so that could be a me problem). This is VASTLY different than every other time I’ve applied in the library field. But I’m also being pickier about the positions I’m applying for, and have a lot more, higher level experience than the last time I applied.

    I’m hearing from my library system that they aren’t seeing the applicants they are used to, and have people leaving faster than they can hire. Our pay, while better than it used to be, isn’t great.

    1. GrouchyLibrarian*

      Are you in the US/what part?
      Public library salaries vary WILDLY within my state. One library may list a reference position for $40k and 2 towns over it’s $52k

      1. Librarianarino*

        Yes, I see the same thing for sure. I’m in Louisiana. In the jobs I’ve been looking at, which is mostly looking to make a lateral or slightly above my current position move, I see positions that pay 15k below what I make now to 10k above (way more of the below, to be clear). It’s wild.

  209. healthcare admin*

    I work in healthcare admin, and we recently were horrifically understaffed in my team for several months because we could just Not find anyone. Our work MUST be done onsite (document prepping and scanning, absolutely no way in hell are those going to be sent to peoples’ houses), and we also ran into issues with requiring both COVID and flu vaccinations (which is a WHOLE OTHER THING which enrages me).

    Another issue is this hospital group uses temp-too-maybe-hire, which I think really impacted it. I’m autistic and have very very very very very strong difficulties with the regular hiring process even in situations where I’d be an extremely strong employee, so I purposefully targeted a temp position, but the uncertainty is EXTREMELY rough in this climate and I have to say I’m very tense about whether I’m getting hired on permanently when my contract allows it despite my onsite boss completely and vocally being extremely happy about my work.

  210. Ann Disasterrr*

    I’ve been job hunting off and on since August 2020 after a company reorganization laid me off of my job of almost ten years and it’s been nothing short of a nightmare. I’m not sure who ghosts more – job recruiters or dudes on dating apps! Part of my trouble is my field & a niche I inadvertently backed myself in to (graphic & presentation design is hilarious! Interviewed for two similar jobs, one did have tighter deadlines & a sometimes heavier workload; one paid $14/hour while the other paid $52/hour!) and part of my struggle is staying at my job that expected me to do the work of a whole department (seriously, every competitor had 2-3 people minimum doing my job) for over 8 of my almost ten years & I was so burnt out my skillset has gotten stagnant – lesson learned!! But the other issue is that 98% of the jobs I’m qualified for are contract which usually means working with a recruiter. Let me preface what I’m about to say next with this: I know there are good recruiters out there but I have personally not encountered them! Early in my hunt a recruiter blew up my phone after hours over a role unrelated to what I do (though it was general enough I could’ve done most of it) & ASSURED me they were actually looking for someone with my skillset but it was a large company & it moved slow so the job posting hadn’t been updated (coming from a huge company this wasn’t a huge red flag, sometimes job needs change & approving a new posting could be slow). I signed up for the interview, did some basic research on the company, generally prepared only to be told that maybe they’d use my skillset 2% of the time! I did my best to get through the interview with grace but talk about being embarrassed! And, not surprisingly, I couldn’t reach or get a response from the recruiter afterwards. This set my skepticism with recruiters and it’s warranted! The recruiters I’m encountering are the most unprofessional people I’ve ever dealt with. Social AND business norms and etiquette have gone out the window. I’ve been told my gaps (August 2020 – June 2021, November 2021 – present) in employment during a pandemic are definitely hurting my chances of even getting my resume reviewed by employers (I admit I’ve struggled at times with this job hunt due to mental health and living alone and being isolated, though I didn’t explain it that way and am now saying I was caring for an ill family member (even though it’s me) and that’s at least going over a bit better). They will call over and over at all hours, I submit my resume and information and then nothing. I email and check in, nothing. Then add in that salaries aren’t posted (and as mentioned earlier my field is all over the place) and almost everything being contract (I desperately need good insurance!) and it feels hopeless. As I said, my mental health has been struggling but I’ve worked very hard to work on that (8 months and 4 appeals later I got my insurance to cover a new treatment that I start soon and am so hopeful it will help me) but it doesn’t change the gaps and it’s REALLY hard to sell yourself when you don’t believe in yourself, but I’m single and own a home so I don’t have a choice and have done my best to keep the job hunt going the best I can. I know I’m a good worker but I need to be able to pay my modest bills and my cobra insurance (which is now less than $100 less than my mortgage!) I’ve decided to redo my portfolio (part of that struggle is that the last ten years of work has been in government proposals where they don’t want flair or sexy graphics AND almost everything I’ve done is proprietary and confidential so my redacted graphics don’t look great) and try to appeal to both my niche and slightly more creative jobs (I am not an illustrator, I know my limits), but it’s taking time because I’m creating work from scratch and frankly I’m running out of time (and money). I’m trying hard to stay on the job hunt six to eight hours a day but I’ve just hit a wall of hopelessness and I’d totally change careers but I’m not a book learner anymore and can’t afford (time or money-wise) to get a new degree. Honestly, I’m really curious how to get into recruiting after all of this – the bar couldn’t be any lower and I’m a decent human being who would communicate reasonably so I think I could do a decent job!

  211. PepperVL*

    I just started a new job this week because my old job didn’t renew my contract. The agency that I had contacted through got me 0 interviews in the 3 months between being told it wouldn’t be renewed and the end of the contract. I found exactly 1 posting outside of agencies that were looking for a records manager. I had a mentor who took it upon herself to send a glowing recommendation of me to her network, and though I talked to several of the people she emailed, none if them knew if any jobs available. Fortunately, she also sent me to a recruiting agency (a different one than had gotten me the expiring contract) and they were able to get me two interviews, one of which turned into a job.

    I went into my job hunt thinking it would be easy to find a job in 3 months. By the end of my search, I was seriously thinking I’d have to go back to driving for Uber full time or take a call center job just to pay the bills. In my field and area it definitely isn’t a job seekers market.

  212. anon tech finance*

    I work in finance for a silicon valley tech company. Turnover has been high, especially at the more junior level. However, we’ve been getting pretty decent candidates in and have been able to fill our roles without too much trouble. We’re probably a little more lax on requirements/experience than we have been in an employer’s market. We have been making higher offers than what HR initially recommends in order to be competitive and increase chances of acceptance (and also decrease chances of people leaving after a year to chase higher salaries).

    Our big challenge was in recruiting top-tier MBA talent, which we do every year in our campus hiring cycle. We got zero applicants from most schools where we posted jobs. I think those students really had their pick of jobs, and so a lesser known company like mine had no chance of competing.

  213. Prof Space Cadet*

    In my industry (academia), competition for full-time teaching jobs is still intense, especially for tenure-track positions. What seems to have changed is that job seekers seem much less willing accept adjunct (part-time) teaching positions. I see this a good thing, given that many colleges/universities have been treating adjuncts badly for a long time.

    I’ve also noticed that when informal job announcements get posted on social media for adjunct or temporary teaching positions, more people are publicly responding to the post with confrontational statements, like “no way would I apply for this based on the pay” or “This is a terrible job — grad students, don’t do it.”

    1. Golden*

      This is promising to hear! I left academia after completing grad school last year, and the postdoc section of the ascb “Where will a biology PhD take you?” chart was always depressing to me. (Basically just circle the drain unless you’re one of the 15% to get a tenure track position after 6 years). I’m glad people have been calling that sort of thing out publicly, where it may lead people to find situations where they’re treated better.

  214. wantingtohire*

    Working in quite a specialised and small industry, everyone is struggling to hire right now. The tech giants (google/meta/tik tok) are hoovering up any talent with wildly lucrative salaries (think 2x the wider market). The other challenge is we want trained candidates with 2+ years experience, but no one hired grads/entry level from March 2020. So there just aren’t candidates in market with that experience, we urgently need to reconfigure our grad schemes to get more talent coming through the pipe over time.

  215. Amy Farrah Fowler*

    We are hiring (we’re always hiring) but for part-time roles. I’ve been pushing for my company to try out full time because I think it will lead to more interest in the role. Without getting into too much identifiable detail, we hire people to work with clients and clients need repeated visits weekly for a few months at a time for projects, and because of the nature of the work, it’s difficult to create a full time schedule, but I do think we could create a position that would be part admin, part working with clients and fill a full time schedule.

    We have raised our pay rates in most areas, but I still don’t know that we’re offering enough perks. We’ve been getting more and more pushback on various things, and it’s tough because I very much wish we could pay everyone as much as they want, but it’s above my pay grade to make that decision. I’m doing my absolute best to be transparent with candidates about what we can and cannot do, and being supportive when people self-select out.

    As an example, we recently offered a candidate $30/hr, and he said he couldn’t take less than $40/hr. We’re willing to negotiate, but $40 is a lot. I also sometimes see candidates that are less qualified and are offered, let’s say $18 for a remote position ask for at minimum $35. When you’re trying to negotiate to get double what we offered, it’s just not feasible for us to come up that much.

    1. Jaybeetee*

      They might not realistically expect pay at that level, but think that high-balling in the negotiation stage will get them a higher salary than you would otherwise offer. It’s not an uncommon negotiating tactic, tho with the current job market, some applicants might be getting bolder with it.

  216. datdat*

    I recently started looking for a different data engineering role. A week after applying, I had 5 different employers interviewing me. The next week, I accepted an offer from the place that had the fastest interview process. They offered me 10k more than I requested.

    I’m still getting many late responses to my applications. Employers who are slow to respond to applications are missing out here. I have 20 years of experience and have never been smothered in employer interest so quickly.

  217. Somebody, Esq.*

    My employer in our niche field (legal tech / lit support) has been on a hiring spree – we’re in major growth mode – but there’s a real dearth of mid-level candidates out there. It’s not an issue of salary or benefits, we’re well in line with the rest of our industry (which has seen a major salary spike of late), it really is a lack of people. Lots of junior-level candidates (we’ve added many juniors in the last year) and senior-level candidates (we’ve added a few but have also filled a number of those roles internally, myself being one, hence needing more mid-levels). We invest a lot into developing our juniors and have promoted some into great mid-level employees, but it hasn’t been enough to fill the gap caused by growth.

    Personally, I’ve been recruited very aggressively by other companies in our industry, but ultimately they’re also looking primarily for mid-levels. There’s been a ton of investment in our field recently and there just aren’t enough skilled people to go around.

    1. Gary Patterson's Cat*

      I see this a lot across completely different industries.

      Lots of inexperienced or very junior people with few skills.
      Lots of high-level people.
      Few mid-level people.

      Probably this also tracks with US population cohorts: Boomer, GenX, Mill’s and finally the GenZ or Zennial recent graduates. I don’t know that there is a solve for it other than for companies to get back into things like training and development for these roles. How else do you move a junior level to a mid-level employee? At some point, they have to be given the opportunity to move up and take on more.
      I think so many companies simply do not want to invest in employee development and think they can just hire someone who can hit the ground running. But it doesn’t always work that way. GenX have been around so long under the Boomer thumbs that we’re now the high-level employees. Not leaving much in the middle.

  218. No Dumb Blonde*

    I’m on the management team of a small state agency in a rural state. We’re one of a handful of quasi-independent agencies whose pay bands are more favorable, along with strong benefits like all state jobs have here. Our small agency has a good reputation and low turnover, and when we do post a position, typically we receive dozens of applications. However, we’ve been advertising a good-paying position that requires a specific (but not rare) skillset for almost six months with few applicants. Our state HR dept. reportedly has said other agencies are seeing the same pattern. I’m not on the hiring committee but our director has said none of the applicants has had the desired experience, and I’m happy they are choosing not filling it with a less-than-qualified candidate.

  219. BioBee*

    I was casually searching, got contacted by a recruiter, and after a month-long interview process was hired. Fully remote, a level up, and 40% raise! This is in biotech, seems like a hot field right now. Everyone is bouncing for new jobs with more pay.

  220. CouldntPickAUsername*

    I left my retail job after working there 11 years. I’m not job hunting yet but I wanted to talk on this after reading some of the replies. It actually reminds me of part of my job. This’ll seem offtopic but get there in the end.
    One thing I sold was printers. People in general had a certain perception of printers, that they could walk in and get one for like 50 bucks on sale and the stores would have tons of them. This was mostly true until the pandemic. Suddenly the factories shut down and everyone needed a printer at home. They were gone, just gone. People would come in and I would just outright tell them ‘my cheapest printer is 200 dollars right now’ and they just couldn’t understand it. They couldn’t understand that their perception of this was no longer accurate. That there are no cheap printers anymore.

    Over time they’d come back in dribs and drabs and sell out super fast. “Ok this one printer I have here is 100 dollars and will do what you need and I have one in stock” “why so much? where are the 50 dollar printers?” “pandemic” “ok, I’ll think about it” and that printer would be gone to the next customer in 30 minutes.

    They just couldn’t get that it was no longer at their leisure to make this decision and no longer the world they were used to.

    This is what I think about when I read all the stories about employers not offering competitive salaries these days. It’s no longer that world, things cost more now and if you want them, then you’re going to have to pay for them and be decisive instead of dicking about. Be it printers, computers or employees.

    1. Chirpy*

      This, I also currently work in retail and am constantly explaining to (sometimes screaming) customers that we do not have an item in stock because of pandemic shortages. Or they’ll come in complaining we haven’t had a thing for months when we’ve only been able to get in a handful at a time and they all sold immediately, and this person just missed it every time and won’t get a raincheck or online order to secure it, or even call ahead to check if we have the item in stock. Of course I’m not going to hold an item indefinitely because you *say* you want it, when there’s another person who will pay for it right now….

      I wish I could afford to take time off and job hunt properly, but I can’t.

  221. Pumpkin215*

    I got a new job during the pandemic. Same type of job, different company and similar industry. The new job came with a 27% pay increase, more PTO, better benefits, and a remote policy.

    Old company has still not filled my position 10 months later. (I’m in contact with my former manager). They kept the salary the same, and won’t budge on PTO or WFH. You have to be in the office 5 days a week with professional dress. The office is located in a city with heavy traffic.

    I got a much better deal and can wear yoga pants in my home office. From my perspective, some companies are not changing with the times and they need to evolve. I have recruiters reach out about once a week because I have one of those rare positions that requires two skill sets. (Think llama grooming and house painting experience). So there are not a ton of us out there.

    If you want a specialized skill and/or experience, you need to pony up the dough! My current company recognizes this which is why they gave me a raise after 6 months and a bonus. I plan to stick around because I’m happy here and they appreciate me.

  223. Emotional Support Care’n*

    My job search has been *horrible*. I was union. My contract ended in March. I knew it was going to take some time (I was taking some time off to get some medical done, the medical ran a lot longer than anticipated, my grandma died, my cat died, grandma’s estate took a long time, my son’s long covid symptoms were/are a LOT and he’s not able to work, I started a divorce prior to my job ending). The union would only call about jobs I’d have to commute 2 hours out of town for (on good weather days). I finally got called about one IN TOWN and I was told I didn’t have enough admin experience for the entry level position. I’ve been in administration for 20 years. My old job started hiring again, but the anti-union site manager poisoned the well with the new company so badly that they refused to hire back ANY of the old staff. Unions got involved and they agreed to only hire back one of the admin. My mom had seniority, so she got it. She refuses to talk to me right now (we barely talked other than work anyway, so this is normal for us when I don’t have babies for her to try to recapture her youth).
    Non-union jobs are laughable. “Must be physically well with no physical, mental health or drug use issues”. “No tattoos period”. “Of good faith and in keeping with The Good Book”. “Please send 5 references, 3 reference letters written within the last year that are not by references, your resume, cover letter, a summary statement, our application, and any documentation showing certifications, licensures, and education…” and that’s for a $15/hr job just to be considered for the job.
    Our city is being run by an incompetent who passed responsibility to another incompetent and they all believe in conspiracies. Our state is being run much the same way and that guy is running for re-election so gov’t jobs are out for the foreseeable future. My volunteer work is polarizing to a lot of companies (how dare I think the LGBTQI+ community be allowed to exist) so that kills a lot of so-called “opportunity” (not really, but at the same time, it does make people question my sanity).

  224. Anybody 3*

    In my area, my impression has been that it’s a mixture of the service industry (food/retail) and small businesses that are struggling to hire. I see restaurants posting fewer hours along with signs indicating that they’re desperately hiring. I’ve seen small businesses posting pretty frequently looking for people. I think they can’t keep up with the new standard in wages and aren’t sure how to adapt. My partner, on the other hand, works in new tech and was essentially laid off during the pandemic. Startups were not in a great position in early COVID days; investor funding really dried up while everyone was in a “wait and see” holding pattern. Now that the hiring frenzy has begun anew he had several companies reaching out to him offering very generous packages. He signed on with one a few months ago and is still getting bombarded with opportunities.

  225. I Hope They Fail Because This Is Bad For People*

    It’s about salary. But it’s also about pre-pandemic strategies and expectations that the groups that own the company won’t let go of, trying to make bank.

    My company has a ton of open positions. Good company too, on the surface. Great benefits. Completely WFH if you want, but allows people to come in to the office also if you want (if you’re vaccinated and boosted). But there’s one big problem.

    They don’t pay enough. They’re cheap. No significant raises in years. Cost-of-living adjustments that are less than half of inflation. And they’re offering tens of thousands less than market rate for highly-skilled technical jobs.

    So yeah. Those jobs have been open for months. Anyone qualified for them is going elsewhere and finding work easily.

    The thing is – profits are still down because of the pandemic. And likely to stay down until it’s really over for good. So the entire corporate strategy has shifted to maximizing EBITDA. So they WILL NOT reinvest in the company right now.

    Sooner or later, unless things change, that is going to become a self-reinforcing formula for failure. They’re just betting they can keep riding out the pandemic troubles, mitigating employee attrition with whatever concessions they absolutely have to make (WFH), and never have to adjust the way they pay people. All to keep EBITDA looking healthy. That way, they can loosely stick within the bounds of the five-year plan they justified to the board and the private equity guys in 2019, as if the world hasn’t changed.

    They may be right. But they certainly are not reacting to the realities of the world around them. They don’t have to. Yet.

    1. Ali + Nino*

      So, what’s the solution for job-seekers? How can applicants in high COL areas compete with those willing to take less pay or fewer/no benefits in a low COL area?

  226. Elisa*

    I work as staff at a state university and have been trying to leave my role for a more senior one for several years. Aside from the typical frustrations of university hiring (there are many), I’ve noticed a significant decline in both number of jobs, in general, available at any given time, and number of mid- to senior-level roles coming open. We know staff are leaving those roles, we’re just not seeing them come up on our job boards.

    I’ve noticed at my university that jobs are being reclassified before being posted, typically with no notice. So, let’s say that someone leaves an assistant director position; when it hits the job board, it may have been downgraded to program coordinator, instead. Or there will be a job in a category I know required a master’s degree 5 years ago, and paid commensurately, that now requires only a bachelor’s and carries a much lower salary. This is effectively eliminating the mid-level roles that many of us had been counting on to actually advance our careers.

    Our area is a job desert and I am place-bound for several reasons, so this is doing a number on my career and aspirations. I’m starting to feel a lot of rage every time someone says something about jobs being out there, just no one wants to work. The jobs that are available have incredibly competitive hiring processes, pay little, and are basically dead-ends at this point. What’s so attractive about that?

  227. Mia*

    I am trying to fill roles on our team and have had trouble finding candidates – and we pay well, have full insurance coverage, unlimited PTO, remote, etc. On the flipside, I personally was looking externally quite seriously in 2021 and had no luck. Even got to the final round and was told I’d receive an offer… only to be ghosted.

  228. Meh*

    My Dad has a PhD and spent roughly three decades in academia. He got laid off at the beginning of the pandemic at 57. Nearly two years later, after hundreds of resumes and interviews in academia, he FINALLY found a job as a cashier at Cabellas.

  229. MishenNikara*

    Retail here. Doesn’t matter if my place wants to hire or not, they refuse to give employees hours. Even during Xmas week, one of the busiest of the holidays, I was only given 26 hours for the week simply because they don’t want to even let us work.

    1. Ali + Nino*

      Why? They don’t want to pay for the help they need? Day after Xmas I went to return some clothes at Zara -biggest day of the year for returns, right? They had one person working the register with 30+ people waiting in line. Ridiculous.

  230. Lacey*

    In my local area I see a lot of people desperate to hire for restaurant workers or sales associates. Like, tons.
    And I know a lot of restaurants are severely limiting their hours because they can’t hired enough of those workers.
    (I know a couple of the owners who have talked about this a lot)

    But, most people on this website aren’t looking for that kind of work.

    I’m helping a friend job hunt for work in marketing, which does seem to have an uptick in the number of openings from where it was when I was job hunting 4 years ago. It’s not massive, but in an area where those jobs are scarce, it’s noticeable.

    And being in marketing myself, we have been advertising for new sales people, which is something we haven’t done in a while. But that’s growth, not turn over, and it will probably be relatively short lived.

  231. Green Tea*

    I’m working in Salesforce world (sales cloud with specialty in some specific components) and I can see companies are trying to hire SFDC admins or business system analyst like crazy – I get lots of LinkedIn messages from companies directly or recruiter even at the start of pandemic, and 2021 was even busier. I was casually looking and only talked to companies hiring directly. Spoke to 3 talent acquisition partners, that landed me on 1 phone call with the hiring manager, which then led to 4 interviews with the team and a case study. Just 3 hours after my last interview they presented me with my offer and they gave me what I asked for my base salary (which is almost a 25% increase from what I’m currently making). I negotiated the bonus and they were able to get back to me within 2 hours and I signed the offer on the same day.

    So I guess if you are working with Salesforce or as a BSA, there are plenty of opportunities out there. If you are the right fit, I think companies are willing to pay. The only downside is some jobs are indeed being outsourced to other countries since companies are more open to remote work, so it’s better to have more than just admin experience and some specialty knowledge under your belt.

  232. EyeRollHR*

    I started a new job in October after searching for months. It was the only place that I got an interview for. I’m very happy here. However, I’ve now learned that, despite a pay raise coming here, I’m still a few dollars/hr under similar-experience colleagues, and now have to figure out how to navigate this whole mess of “we did a compensation study and to make sure your entire department is paid fairly, so everyone’s getting a few cents raise!” with very little capital. I hope there’s an avenue to fix that without having to leave.

    I heard our HR manager make an offhand remark a few weeks ago about how “people are finally going back to work” since we’re getting more applications in. The job I applied for and 1 more than remains open are the only ones that list a minimum pay range, which is a major reason I even applied. If they did that for all the roles, I think they’d have much better luck (we’re a non-profit so people probably assume our pay is terrible, but it’s actually surprisingly decent with good benefits)’ I also only found the spot because I came across their social media post. If they post anywhere else, I’ve never seen it. The interview process was almost a month from start to offer, which is ridiculous right now. For a good plus at least, I don’t believe they use an ATS system, so thank goodness there wasn’t a robot keeping applicants from even getting seen.

    Overall, we have a lot of spots open, but it’s our own fault. A little more transparency and advertising would likely be a big help.

  233. Decidedly Me*

    We’re having trouble hiring for some of our roles and better luck with others. The ones we’ve been able to hire for have been almost exclusively through employee referrals. We’re getting a lot of applications, but most people are not a good fit for the role they are applying to at all. We’re fully remote, fully paid health care for employees (partially for dependents), 401k with employer contribution, offer competitive pay, and have annual raises and bonuses. We reply to all applicants, even if rejected at the application stage.

    We’re a SaaS company in the US.

  234. ButtonPusher*

    I’m a business person turned programmer (mid-30s but early in my programming career). I’m being told people at my level can easily jump into a role at $120K, but having a tough time getting bites. That said it’s always been contradictory in the tech field in my opinion – tech hiring seems to say they understand that people don’t always come with all the skills they need for that job and that learning is an important part, but also god help you if you don’t know Java. Hard pass.

  235. IT Manager in Toronto*

    My company just laid off some data scientists at our Toronto office and they are not finding any luck, despite being told jobs abound. I think that it isn’t so easy out there for tech workers who weren’t really impacted by the pandemic (already had flexible schedules and remote options).

  236. Maybe not*

    It’s been a constant struggle. We have been hiring people who are underqualified, because it is impossible to get qualified folks at normal rates. For example, we were hiring a junior (but not entry-level) position. We interviewed, we had someone accept. The junior rate was $75k. She pulled out because the place where she was currently contracting offered her $125k to stay. So it was back to the drawing board. Things like this have happened again and again. We have had, frankly, bad hires. The market is just really competitive, at least in our field.

  237. Rey*

    I just graduated with my MPA degree while working full-time, and I have been trying to move into a role that actually utilizes that. In my experience, companies that already had a considerate hiring process have just re-affirmed that they’re being considerate of the applicants they are getting, and companies that are stuck in the old mindset that they hold all the power fall back into that pattern at some point in the hiring process. This makes me think that they believe this is just a temporary change, not a true shift, and that they haven’t done any deep digging for if they should change their applicant process and really committed to that change.

  238. wildcat*

    I have been searching for a job since February 2021 when I realized my current job was not a great fit. I am yet to find a job. I am applying at conservation NGOs but there wasn’t much being advertised most of the year until around October 2021. I applied for a few jobs and have mostly been ignored. They are still on the website as they didn’t have a closing date (nor salary range) but I applied within days of seeing them. I was invited for a written screening for one position beginning of December and never heard back again. So on my end it is looking like they are not really searching for employees.

  239. zehuxocu*

    I recently read a discussion where someone asked a similar question & the most popular theory folks seem to have is, employers are convinced the current situation is temporary & they don’t want to be “stuck” with someone who’s getting paid more than what the employer would pay during “normal times”.

    If this theory is correct, I’m not sure how much longer the “employee shortage” needs to continue for the bulk of employers to realize this may be the new normal going forward. Or maybe they’re right & this is temporary. I certainly hope not because a recalibration of employee pay & benefits, particular for those being paid closer to minimum wage is decades overdue.

    1. Not a Name Today*

      I just posted below how our applicants are expecting salaries 2x the normal. We have been turning to consultants since that is a consultant’s rate, and we can use them to fill the gap.

    2. Ori*

      A big shift for me is that, without the usual release valves in society, I realised, as a mid level candidate, I cannot tolerate the stress levels inherent in my industry. I’ve had recruiters get in touch offering jobs paying a lot more than my previous salary, and i’m not sure if it’s worth it.

  240. Danielle*

    I am job searching. Hiring in my field is typically slow but it is even slower right now. Furthermore, I have experienced a lot of “ghosting,” even after 3-4 interviews, presentations, interviews with panels, travel to other cities/states, etc. I would say there is more ghosting now than in the past! One recent example: two weeks ago a potential employer asked me for a virtual interview and asked me for some possible times. I replied with slots and have never heard back, even after following up after the New Year. This is just one of many examples.

    1. Revised Revision*

      I’ve had the same experience. Out of the dozen first interviews (which were all phone screens) I’ve only had a follow-up back from 1/3 of them, the rest have been crickets.

  241. Not a Name Today*

    We’ve been hiring in the Developer/Tech field and applicants know the market is hot. We pay well, like, for real…I’m blown away by how well I’m paid, but applicants are asking for really outrageous salaries. A junior role ranges between $70k and $90k, but applicants are expecting $140k. This is a low cost of living area and we are only looking for a year or two of experience. We have been talking to applicants right out of school with only a few months of internships but they are expecting to make more than our senior techs.

    1. Fran Fine*

      That’s because they’re hearing about the offers to people at their level from FAANG employers, who are offering six figures to newbies, and thinking they should be able to command that everywhere.

  242. Read the job description*

    Hiring manager here- I’ve seen a really dramatic shift in the volume of qualified applicants since ~September 2021. My biggest issue is a higher number of candidates appearing to resume bomb and do the bare minimum to throw their ring in the hat (few cover letters). I’m currently hiring for candidates with masters degree and 5-7 years of experience (with a six figure hiring range, really competitive for a nonprofit field) and 90% of applicants have been recent grads. This has always been an issue but it has definitely stepped up in the past few months, making it harder for managers to weed through and get to the candidates. I’m all about applying for stretch roles but it is getting out of hand!

  243. Venti vanilla latte breve*

    I got an email from a company that I applied to work at 10 years ago, asking if I was interested in applying for one of the many open roles. This employer, who is nationally known, does not allow for any remote work, chronically underpays its staff to the point where many of them work second or third jobs, and has had a very unsafe, terrible response to COVID (went back into the office even though their governor strongly encouraged not going into the office).

    Um, how about NO?

  244. The_artist_formerly_known_as_Anon-2*

    One of the concepts I often spoke on is that people wind up “level setting” themselves too low.

    Example = Fergus has 10 years experience in IS/IT. He is making $100,000 a year in his specialty. He loses his gig.

    So he starts looking- and if he didn’t network properly (common place, especially if you get into a position where you’re fat dumb and happy and suddenly find yourself in the street) — Fergus starts looking, and does get a couple nibbles.

    But people want to hire him at $30,000 and start using the bull***t “once you’re inside, you can write your own ticket!” No – it doesn’t work that way.

    He may NEVER recover if he allows his value to be level-set at $30,000. A 20% raise only brings him to $36,000. Since salaries generally offered by other companies are based on what you’re making today, Fergus will NEVER recover from a layoff if he takes low-paying jobs.

  245. MedDev*

    I work for a fortune 100 company in the med device field. It’s a great company, and the department is awesome. We were having trouble filling our positions a few months ago because we weren’t remote, and only allowed 1 day per week. That changed very quickly and within 3 weeks it went from 1 day, to 2 days, to now 3 days remote. That helped a lot!

    The positions we were hiring for were analyst positions (not entry level), paying around 75 – 80k. I’m told by our Director that it’s on the low end compared to what competitors pay, and some of the analysts make as much as the managers do (120kish). We live in a city that’s growing rapidly and becoming very expensive because of all the Califonia and coastal people moving here and scooping up homes in cash and paying 100-200k over asking.

  246. mli25*

    I was laid off by a big bank in Jun 2021 and spent all summer applying/interviewing. I was asking for comparable pay, mostly to fully remote work (not relocating for any job). Most of what I got contacted about was contract work. Which is bananas! I have experience and an advanced degree. Why would I take a risk on a contract, which the company can essentially end at any time, for little to no reason (ask me how I know)? I kept a spreadsheet. More than 250 job contacts (me applying or them reaching out). I had plenty that never responded or stopped responding, even after interviewing. I did receive 5 or 6 offers and turned all but one of them down (lack of industry knowledge, 2 weeks of leave, and generally not feeling like the jobs were right for me). My husband’s income/my unemployment + severance allowed me to be picky, which I acknowledge

    1. Not a Name Today*

      Yep! I’ve been getting lots of interest but everything is a contract role. I get lots of reassurances that the company is motivated to hire and bla bla bla, but if they wanted to hire a perm role, then they would offer a perm role. I did the contractor thing for a while and it gets tiresome very fast. Just managing the health insurance aspect is a nightmare! I had 4 diff insurance plans in a single year!
      No thank you. If a company wants me to leave a stable job, then they need to offer a stable job.

  247. AdequateArchaeologist*

    My field (archaeology, specifically CRM) is apparently dying for techs, especially in California. Covid caused a lot of project to get pushed back and a fair amount is work that legally has to be done (Section 106 of the NRHP, if anyone cares). But in my experience companies are wanting total availability and can only promise 1-3 weeks of work, not paying the greatest ($18/hr in California…), not responding to applications for weeks, and some companies/clients are moving towards reimbursement rather than per diem. Which means you have to front all your food costs. Oh, and they usually want a bachelor’s for this but are apparently relaxing requirements because they are so desperate ( which, not sure how that plays out legally because qualifications can be weird, but there was a big deal about unqualified people on permits back in 2019, but not my problem anymore).

  248. FreakInTheExcelSheets*

    I feel like I’m being used to pump up numbers for recruiters. They’re reaching out to me (I’m not applying initially) for jobs I’m definitely qualified for (many would be lateral moves, not promotions, but I’m not super satisfied with my current role/pay so I’m open to that), having interviews with multiple people from the company, hearing feedback that I’m a great candidate and the team loved me! … and then crickets. Sometimes I’m lucky enough to get a (clearly) form email from someone in HR that I never spoke to saying that they went a different direction.

  249. Turvy*

    I’ve got 10 years experience in legal support, I’ve been trying to transition out of law firms and into a remote corporate setting. Tons of law firm openings but mostly ridiculously low salary. I’ve been throwing my hat in the ring for just about anything that sounds promising via LinkedIn over the past month – perhaps 65 applications, give or take, and I’ve been invited for 3 interviews so far with 1 recruiter ghosting me (bear in mind of course, this period covers Christmas and New Years). My 3 non-negotiables are a substantial raise, remote work, and genuine opportunity for growth.

  250. V. Anon*

    My company is hiring like *mad.* On the upside: our tortuously long process has been streamlined. Downside: we still can’t offer great pay (or benefits are excellent). So we are indeed losing great candidates when we can’t bring up the $, because everybody has multiple offers right now. At least we’re all getting to that Yes/No point more quickly.

    A point about the $: we’re in NYC, and our industry isn’t NOT Wall Street. Yes, we lose people to the major money. But we sometimes get people back because we have cool projects and actual PTO.

  251. Marighoul*

    I just found a job, but had been searching until recently. I’ve been looking both in food service/retail/hospitality positions. Employers have said they are in a hurry to hire, but either haven’t increased wages at all, or the sign/posting advertises an increased wage that doesn’t actually get offered after applying. Many are still paying way below what’s livable in my area and demanding I start immediately (like, the next day, before they’ve given me an offer) because they are understaffed. Several have tried to get me to start my first day of work without being willing to tell me what the pay for the position even is. One interview at a grocery store asked me about my hoped-for pay range- I named an hourly number similar to what other places had advertised, lower than many counter serve positions around — and literally got laughed out loud at. The hiring manager looked me up and down (I’m obviously trans) and told me that there was no chance she could pay like those other places, but I should work there because I wouldn’t be able to succeed in other jobs that didn’t have an “accepting workplace culture” like hers did. Now they have an even bigger “now hiring” banner on the front of the store, in case people couldn’t see the previous one, I guess. Seems like these places put all their money into signage… if only they spent it on wages. Most places were only hiring part time workers, no full time positions. And I applied for plenty of places that never got back to me. Ended up getting a job in the field my degree is in, thank goodness. It doesn’t pay well but at least it’s full time.

    1. Marighoul*

      The job I ended up getting is a white collar, low pay, entry level office job. They were apparently also desperate to hire someone (so they said), but between the day I applied and the day I got the offer was *seven full months*. I did video interviews, phone interviews, in person visit, met the CEO.. the whole nine yards. It only worked for me because during that time I applied for, got, did, and finished a different seasonal position. I don’t really know who they expected to stick around for over half a year of interviewing for a job that pays less than Chipotle… but I guess I’m the sucker.

    2. Michelle*

      “Several have tried to get me to start my first day of work without being willing to tell me what the pay for the position even is.”

      My daughter went in for an interview that turned out not to be an interview – the manager started by asking for her social security card to start the hiring paperwork. When my daughter wanted to actually discuss the job first, the manager said she didn’t have time for that, and “come back when you have your social security card.”

      1. Marighoul*

        This happened to me as well. One place (definitely not a scam, major chain) wanted my social to finish the initial online application. Totally nuts.

    3. Methuselah*

      I applied at many restaurants”desperate” to hire. I have years of restaurant experience in management. I haven’t heard anything from 85% of them. One called me back FIVE MONTHS after I applied for an interview. 2 scheduled interviews and when I showed up the hiring managers refused to interview me. Both of those interviews were set on mondays, the first manager claimed she was too busy because she had to go to the bank and so she wanted me to come back that friday. Then she proceeded to go sit in the office pull out her phone and start playing Candy crush. They wanted me to fill out a paper application after I had already filled out the online application and sent my resume. So I sat there for 25 minutes filling out the insane paper application. She’s after playing Candy crush the entire time. I didn’t bother to go back that Friday I found that incredibly disrespectful. The second interview was also on a Monday at a totally different restaurant chain and I walked up to the counter and explained I was there for an interview. One of the teenagers there turned to a lady who ended up being the hiring manager and said this lady is here for her interview. The hiring manager who was literally two feet away from me looked me up and down sneered at me turn back to the teenager and refused to even acknowledge or speak to me, then she snapped rudely at this little teenage girl “tell her I’m busy! She can come back Friday if she actually wants a job!” And then stomped off. I called after her “No I will NOT be coming back Friday! I do want to work but NOT for somebody as rude disrespectful and horrible as YOU are!” And then I told the young girl “You’re better than this job I suggest you go and find somewhere else that will respect you.” And I left. No way would I ever come back and interview with somebody that disrespectful and rude. Now I’m just looking for work from home jobs because I’m done with the restaurant industry. They don’t want people to work. They want people to come on demand for part-time hours not work anywhere else because they may need you at the drop of a hat, and they want you to be okay with slave wages and disrespect.

  252. Veryanon*

    I’m casually looking as my current role has morphed into focusing on one particular area with no end in sight, despite my repeated requests to my manager that some of these duties be transitioned to another person on the team. Yes, I’m talking about COVID – my job has changed to the point that COVID-related issues make up about 90% of what I’m working on, and I’m frankly burned out on it.
    I’m finding the same issues that I experienced when searching for jobs several years ago, before I started in my current role. Applications go off into a black hole somewhere and you never hear from a live human being, companies are still asking for salary history even when they’re not supposed to, and employers want someone with champagne qualifications on a beer budget. It’s disheartening.

  253. Klayter*

    I was one of those people who graduated into the recession, so for me job hunting has always meant: literal years of sending out carefully personalized cover letters and resumes into a yawning void that very occasionally spits out a summons for an interview. This year was different. For every six applications I sent out, I got at least one interview, sometimes more. All were for better pay and better benefits than I’ve become accustomed to. The offer I ended up accepting has a 20% raise, health insurance, and a goddamn pension plan! I’ve always known I was underpaid, but it’s like a whole new world right now. I don’t know how this economy feels to people at the top or the middle, but if you’ve been trying for years to just get by along the bottom: now is pretty exciting.

      1. Klayter*

        Haha, thank you! Reading over other peoples’ comments I feel a little like a braggy shit–I expected more people to be having positive experiences!

        I do a little bit of everything, back-office wise? Accounting, time-keeping, billing—I’m moving from used car automotive (a cesspool) to hospital administration in a very specialized field. The specific software and systems will be new to me, but I have a fantastic jack-of-all-trades* track record of showing up, working hard, and handling whatever random emergencies get thrown my way, and all my previous employers (even the toxic ones, lol) have given me glowing references. I was low paid, public-facing essential (got covid twice) and am still willing to show up in person to do office work as long as the public will be kept away from me, so I think that made me attractive compared to people who are only able or willing to do remote work right now. This office is literally hospital-adjacent, and I cannot express how excited I will be to move into an environment where masking protocols are seriously enforced.

        *I’ve been a funeral director’s apprentice, magazine copy-editor, horror writer, foreign language teacher in the USA, English teacher abroad, plus the office upkeep—turns out that a lot of people will see at least something on that list and want to hear a story about it, and I’m an okay storyteller

  254. kiki*

    I work in software and hiring right now is bananas. Everyone is moving around, salary offers are way higher than they were two years ago, there are lots of perks being offered, and so many more companies are allowing remote work for developers.

    I’m really happy for all my peers who are finding themselves in much better financial situations, but I’m worried that this is a bubble that may burst. I also worry that companies are throwing a ton of money at hiring with the expectation that new hires will be able to solve their company’s problems when really there are systemic issues at play. So many companies want experienced software engineers to jump in and solve all their problems but companies are not hiring and training enough junior engineers to create a solid stream of experienced engineers. Or companies are hiring several junior engineers hoping that together they can do the work of a senior without adequate training or mentorship. And then those junior engineers have a year of experience, which helps them land a better next role, but their whole first year was chaos that doesn’t set them up for success in the new role.

    It’s really cool to know that I could find a new job easily, but I worry about the state of our industry.

    1. Not a Name Today*

      I can see how this happens. I commented above on how fresh devs are asking for the salaries of senior techs so we are using contractors until things balance out. But other companies may get a newbie and assume they are experienced because they are asking for a director’s level salary, and then expect them to solve all their problems. Lots of companies equate salary with responsibility/experience, so if they pay out the big bucks, then they expect big things to happen.

      1. kiki*

        Lots of companies equate salary with responsibility/experience, so if they pay out the big bucks, then they expect big things to happen.

        Yes! And then everyone ends up frustrated. The company doesn’t get the big things they wanted to happen and the engineer burns themself out trying to solve problems they don’t yet have the skills or experience to solve.

  255. GarlicMicrowaver*

    I’m in healthcare communications and the labor shortage in my organization all around is real, especially right now. I just resigned this week as I accepted another (fully, permanent remote which I was not getting before) position with another organization in the same industry. When asked what my desired salary was, I gave a range, and they highballed me at $20k more than that. Know your worth.

  256. Melodrama*

    I was ghosted by a new hire this week! The job is healthcare admin and a step above entry level (some general healthcare background preferred, but not expected to have any actual experience in this field, which is niche.) We interviewed her at the end of November, offered the first week of December for a 1/5 start. She accepted the offer, then never completed any of the new hire paperwork that was sent or replied to my outreach.

    I get why she may have looked elsewhere or used us to negotiate a better salary where she was working so she didn’t have to learn a whole new system. But I would have appreciated a heads up so I could have re-opened the search. I am DESPERATE for help and mainly getting manager-level applicants because everyone is terribly burned out and looking right now.

  257. Voodoo Priestess*

    I have and MS degree and about 15 years of experience in engineering and I constantly get approached by recruiters. I’m seeing more things like “location flexible” and “flexible schedule with hybrid options” and even fully remote options in an industry that has historically been hostile to WFH. In addition to the current economic conditions, the last crash in 2008 has finally started working in my favor. I started just prior to the crash, and a lot of people in my industry were laid off or there were no places hiring, so a significant number of my peers left the industry (or never started to begin with). That means engineers with 10-15 years of experience are a bit like unicorns. I’m fairly confident that between open positions and my professional network, I could find a new job in a matter of weeks given the current market.

    I have heard offers are up in addition to the new flexibility my industry is offering. I haven’t followed anything through to that stage, so I can’t say firsthand. I also know that some companies in my industry (mine included) are starting to offer paid parental leave, which has NEVER been industry standard. Between trying to be more inclusive and trying to entice prospective employees, we’re finally seeing meaningful change for new parents.

    I am hoping to use the current market conditions and my performance over the last few years to ask for a promotion and raise. Maybe I’ll update if that conversation goes well.

  258. LMB*

    I don’t have any personal experience job hunting in the current environment, but all the media and conventional wisdom that it’s such a great “job market” right now bothers me because it’s way too general. It obviously depends on the industry, the job function, the level of experience required, geographic area, etc. I don’t think my (large) employer is hiring at particularly high levels right now (if anything it seems like there have been fewer postings), and I don’t know anyone personally regardless of industry who is actively looking for a job or being swamped by new opportunities opening up before them. I’m also a little aggravated by this pervasive idea that’s out there right now that if you don’t like your job in anyway you can just get a new one that’s better. Sure, people can do that but my guess is there are just as many people for whom this is not feasible. It assumes so much that is just not true for so many workers. And while it’s framed as a kind of middle finger to capitalism, it’s also sending this message that if you are unpaid or treated badly or unfairly by your employer, well it’s your fault for not constantly moving to the next best thing—it’s actually letting employers completely off the hook.

  259. CupcakeCounter*

    I quit my “Oh crap I got laid off in a pandemic and need a job” job in July. It was in my field and the pay/vacation/etc…was fine but it was a horrible place to work. I spent the rest of the summer off with my son and helping my SIL prepare for her baby. It was great. I starting applying again when school started had had 3 offers within the first week. Since my previous job was so bad and at this point I had 2 back-to-back short jobs, I decided to start as a contractor for my current role. Well we decided it was a great fit shortly before Thanksgiving but with the holidays and everything we planned on a delay but I still don’t have a permanent offer due to a temporary hiring freeze in our division as a result of an outside consulting firm doing a division analysis.
    My boss is livid at the situation and gave me a $2.50/hour raise and unlimited OT as an “I’m sorry” and a way to ensure I don’t jump ship. I told him I’d happily stay with the current set up through Q1 but after that I’d have to think about long term plans. In the meantime, I am getting contacted almost daily by recruiters and LinkedIn connections about other jobs so I’m not worried. The company has a good reputation (although this department is going through a rough time) and from what I’ve seen has a lot of room for growth and improvement. While I’m not committed to staying through retirement, I can see potential.

    1. CupcakeCounter*

      And I probably should have mentioned my field and region…corporate accounting, supervisory role, no CPA, 15 years experience.
      Salary is up $20k from the position I left at the end of 2019.

  260. Keymaster of Gozer (she/her)*

    Bit of a mishmash here really. The senior technical roles I need to hire for are difficult as people are demanding WFH permanently and we cannot provide that – we need techies on site from time to time. They do seem to like that I am very very keen on having only vaccinated people apply (or people with genuine medical exemptions) though based on feedback.

    (Call me bigoted if you will but I’ll use every bit of political clout I have to NOT get an antivaxx or Covid denier on my team.)

    There’s friends of mine who are managers in technical departments elsewhere who aren’t getting applications for the starter level jobs – because frankly the pay is crap and you’re required to be in the office the whole time and they don’t have any mask/vaccination policies.

    1. LDN Layabout*

      If you need people on site, it’s only right that you don’t hire antivaxxers. End of.

    2. Ori*

      Nah, that’d be a huge incentive for me. My main issue with in office work atm is unvaccinated staff.

  261. Unimaginative User Name*

    Oh! I can answer from both hiring and being hired perspectives. At my last organization, we had trouble hiring because salaries were definitely too low, especially when compared to private employers (I work in local government). The organization was still operating under recession of 2008 thinking of “everyone wants a stable job.” For a myriad of reasons including the refusal to really look at salaries, I was looking to leave. I applied for my new position, had an interview within a week, and had a job offer that evening. I negotiated salary successfully (thanks for the help there, Alison!) and started my new job a month later. (Both governments I’ve worked for are rigid about start dates and onboard large groups of people at a time. I do not know if that is the norm in government or just this area.)

  262. That'll Be Me*

    All I saw was bait ‘n switch. The salary posted would say $60k, $75k, or $55k, or something comparable to my city’s median salary. I’d get an offer and have the money convo and suddenly the salary is $40k, $45k, and in one instance $15/hr for a 90 day trial period, in another instance $35k. I’d ask why the discrepancy and the response would be a non-answer that basically just blamed covid.
    I have a Master’s degree. I have 10 years in the field and multiple sought-after field related certifications. My peers are making $100k a year, my city is booming, and businesses are still only offering pizza and jeans on Fridays in lieu of a real salary.

  263. DEEngineer*

    I’m a mechanical/process engineer with 10+ years manufacturing experience in Delaware, and the market is very hot right now. I got a new job in May 2021 at a very competitive salary for my responsibilities. What I’ve seen is that companies are willing to pay more for experience because they’re short-staffed and need useful employees quickly.

  264. Cthulhu's Librarian*

    Recently finished a master’s degree, and what I’m seeing is that employers are desperate for experienced employees – people who finished up a year or two ago and I’ve stayed in touch with in the field say they’re getting responses quickly if they apply to a position, and a few are getting recruitment attempts.

    For someone with no experience in the field, it seems like there’s still a lot of being ignored while applying that is happening.

    I suspect this actually has a lot to do with the great resignation in the field I’m looking to transition to – with so many experienced folks resigning, employers don’t have anyone to train new entry level hires, and so they’re desperate to pick up experienced talent that will (theoretically) require less training instead.

  265. Ann Furthermore*

    My husband runs a very small manufacturing-type business (fewer than 10 people) and wants to hire an entry-level person. He has been ghosted twice in the last 2 weeks, and he’s offering a decent starting wage and medical coverage. He’s gotten some responses from people with many more years of experience, but of course they want much more than he’s able to pay.

    A friend’s son is getting ready to graduate from high school and I’ve asked her if he’s looking for a job. It’s a great opportunity for someone who wants to learn about the trade. I hope something works out soon. He’s been burning the candle at both ends for the last year.

  266. Potatoes gonna potate*

    500+ comments so I’m late to the party but I’m going to add my experience/two cents as well.

    I’m seeing this discussion everywhere in my groups on social media. And majority of people are on polar ends of this. Employers keep having people quit on them while employees are saying they’re finding themselves with lots of options. I’m not sure how true the latter is — it may be specific to a few industries IMO. I still recall how stressful it was to look for a job in 2010-2014. My personal situation is different than what it was in 2009 so I’m not looking as frequently as I was then. But I have a sinking feeling that things haven’t changed as much as I’d like to believe.

    My opinion: adding compensation up front to a job posting will eliminate A LOT of the heartache experienced on both ends.

  267. Bananakins*

    I graduated with a Master’s degree a year ago and am about 2 months in to trying to change fields without much luck. The skills that I use at my current job are transferrable and my degree should also be putting me at an advantage, but positions in the field I am hoping to break into frequently say they require years of experience for “associate”/entry-level roles. I’m applying anyway, of course. I’ve had two interviews and no offers.

  268. Media Mouse*

    I’m on the hiring side. We’ve been trying to fill a position since July. I see excellent resumes and salaries I think are reasonable for my area, but I’ve been coached to reject them since they don’t fit in my company’s “range”. I brought this issue up yesterday with one of my bosses and they basically said, “even [senior position higher than posted one] doesn’t get paid what they’re asking for – it’s absurd.”

    I want to die a little on the inside b/c my field and company does low-ball people for the amount of work they need to do.

  269. Colin Broccoli*

    I’ve thrown a lot of resumes at a lot of outside-my-field jobs, and i’ve gotten an interview or a phone screen for nearly every one. and i’m not a particularly competitive candidate.

    I feel like I’ve been getting a lot more interviews since they no longer require you to take time off work and go in person to an office.

  270. SWFL*

    I work in site development in Florida. The real estate market is crazy here and new subdivisions are being built all over. My company pays market rate or higher with bonuses after 90 days (even for laborers!) and we still have trouble getting any applicants let alone ones with experience. From talking with others in the industry, all the other companies in area are having the same problem and the home builders are short on contractors as well. A lot of people left the construction trades after the recession and never came back and now we’re really feeling the shortage of people who will work a heavy physical labor job.

  271. Orora*

    I’m an HR Director trying to fill a temp-to-hire administrative assistant role. It’s not rocket science. The temp agency I’m working with hasn’t been able to send me any resumes because they just don’t have anyone to send. I’ve told them I’d rather have someone good and that if that means paying more, I’m OK with that. Still, nada.

    I’m considering finding a new employer myself, but I’m concerned about getting into a more toxic environment than I’m in now.

    1. Fizzyfuzzy*

      I wonder if you’re on the other end of something I’ve been dealing with. I was contacted by a recruiter working for staffing agency trying to fill a similar position for a client. They have been the most useless, disorganized, slow moving recruiting firm I’ve ever dealt with. They ask the same questions over and over, make you go through multiple phone screens with multiple people at the agency, seemingly no purpose and took over 2 and a half weeks after that to actually send my resume to the internal HR team at the position. If you aren’t 100% sure the temp agency is doing what they’re supposed to you may want to look into it.

  272. Clare*

    In my casual search, it seems like many employers have switched to “unlimited” PTO (which I’m not interested in) and about 75% of listings have unrealistically low wage expectations for the experience they are asking. On the flip side, my husband went from application to start date in 7 weeks, 7% raise, 2 additional weeks PTO, and much better benefits in an industry that is notoriously slow moving with hiring.

  273. Cascadia*

    I just hired for a position and was thrilled by the number of amazingly qualified applicants we got. It was an entry-level position, but many of the applicants had far more experience than that. We had hired for a similar, though slightly higher-level position a few years ago and though we got almost double the applicants for that job, the pickings were way slimmer with most applicants being unqualified.
    Conversely, a friend of mine was laid off this fall. She had seen the writing on the wall, and had been applying for new jobs in a variety of fields since spring 2021. It took her until December 2021 to finally get a job offer – despite working in a field/having experience in a field that says they are desperate to hire. During her search she applied to 60+ jobs, only receiving interviews at a handful of places. She took a massive pay cut from her previous job, but she needs the health insurance so she decided to take it.

  274. Meghan*

    Hi! Distribution Center Leader here…

    Throughout the spring and summer we were desperate for help. Couldn’t get candidates to come to interviews, or candidates would take another offer prior to start day. It was very stressful on my existing team due to necessary overtime to fill in the gaps.

    I’m happy to report that my company took notice and re-engineered our compensation and benefits package for both new hires and existing employees, as well as removed some unnecessary red tape in the hiring process. The result was more candidates interviewing and successfully starting.

    I’m not sure about the rest of the distribution or supply chain industry, but changing our approach at my company paid dividends.

  275. IndyDem*

    My department is hiring, and haven’t had an issue with getting applicants. I think part of that is due to the fact that while our open positions are entry level, the majority of applicants are transitioning from non-profit work to a for-profit company. I myself made that transition when I moved here – my salary increased by 55% and I actually get yearly raises and bonuses. (In the 11 years previous to my move, I once got a $10 Dunkin card and twice had $500 added to my 401K as a bonus) The pandemic has actually helped us in recruiting – the positions in the non-profit world are direct-care face to face, while we were hybrid before March 2020, and full time remote since then. That’s a huge draw, even when we will eventually go back to hybrid.

    1. lolly pop*

      This. I’m neatly tucked into my state job but the outdated attitudes toward remote/flexible work are ridiculous. If I could match my salary/benefits and have a more hybrid schedule, I’d jump ship.

  276. BarelyMakingIt*

    My husband has been putting in application after application for anything he can find, and either keeps getting rejection emails or ghosted–even for grocery bagging! We’ve reviewed his resume again AAM and other sources, looked at his background check (no flags), he isn’t over qualified–so we’re frustrated.

  277. Lunch Ghost*

    I’m moving this summer and am terrified to start the job search after my last two job searches took over a year and were utterly demoralizing.

    A co

  278. Elps*

    I’m desperate to hire someone for my team, but we’re getting no bites. I’m the hiring manager for a position in a non-profit, but I have no control over how the the job is posted and what information is in it. For context, this is job has no education requirement and 2-3 years professional experience preferred.

    I’m 100% convinced that we’re not getting applicants because it’s an hourly temporary position, and HR just will not post the wage on any posting. If I were job hunting, I would immediately assume this was a $10/hr gig or something like that. We’re paying above $17 with overtime available, flexible hours, WFH, and benefits, all of which I could tell someone if they applied. None of that is in the listing and HR just won’t budge. I don’t blame the folks looking for work, I blame administrators who won’t keep up with the times!

  279. OfInfiniteSpace*

    I recently asked for a completely reasonable given the market rate for my position raise, and was told, more or less “go jump in a lake, we have stacks of resumes and can replace you in minutes.” I’m not sure if they were trying to call my bluff, but they did agree to pay me my requested rate through a 6-10 week transition period to train in a new person.

  280. A Data Engineer*

    I recently changed jobs. My new job represented about a 30% raise, and I was astonished at how fast the hiring process went — really just an initial phone screen, a 90 min technical test, and then about a week of waiting for the offer letter (much of that following the call by the recruiter to tell me an offer was likely).

    I read a tech industry recruiter on Twitter, and it sounds like this isn’t abnormal; he admonishes his clients to act as though any delay in the process will cause them to lose candidates. That said — I’m in data engineering, which was already a pretty good market for seekers pre-COVID, so blessed with an atypically good situation now.

    1. ER*

      I’m a data scientist working to make the switch to data engineering! Currently interviewing with 5 places, so have been getting callbacks, but have had to aim for smaller orgs to get my foot in the door given I haven’t had a data engineering title (though it seems enough people understand how my experience with data engineering while in a data science role translates, which I appreciate – otherwise it can be hard to make lateral shifts; also most hiring managers seem to understand that a lot of data scientists actually do data engineering work, which was true in my previous role). The downside is that there’s quite a salary drop between senior data scientist at a larger tech org and lower- to mid-level data engineers at smaller orgs, but in the long run I know the switch is the right move.

  281. Gnome*

    I know the ask was for the employee side of things, but I’m going to suggest that what I’ve seen on the hiring side indicates that the folks who may be experiencing trouble right now are either mismatched for open positions (E.g. can’t just walk into an engineering job) or don’t read this blog. I have seen some spectacularly bad resumes recently. I am not a manager, but I assist with hiring for technical positions (reviewing resumes, doing interviews, and making hiring recommendations… Some of which are actually decisions). Some positions are truly niche and hard to fill, but others have been weirdly hard to fill… We are talking entry level, zero experience required – just education – and zero applications.

  282. Katie Kay*

    I’m an attorney in a major city with 7 years of experience and basically rage quit my job three months ago. I applied to exactly two jobs, and ended up with another 8 interviews within 3 weeks based solely on people contacting me through Linkedin (I put up that I was open to jobs). I had three job offers really quickly, and was able to negotiate a 45% raise and a lot of perks. I’m good at what I do and specialized, but I did not work for a large firm or go to a top school, so I’m not a unicorn candidate or anything.

    One thing I noticed is that while I was getting very generous salary offers, a lot of law firms really wanted people back in the office full time/working insane hours. I decided that was a non-starter for me, and I know a lot of attorneys that feel the same way so I do think some of the lack of candidates (in my field at least) stems from the old way of thinking still permeating law firms.

  283. Campfire Raccoon*

    We’re desperate to hire qualified (industry-specific) teapot technicians. Project managers, too. They are few and far between. Our particular industry is tiny despite being in a population center of 6 million people. We would have to poach technicians from a competitor or hire techs from failing or closed companies. Because our industry is so small, we’re **actual** friends with many of our small-to-medium sized competitors. My kids used to go to sportsball with another owner’s kids, we hang out/go camping with a number of other company owner and technicians, and my neighbor married the owner of third competitor. We often refer customers to each other when we aren’t able to respond to their needs in a timely manner. We are all having the same problems hiring technicians. The large companies in our industry seem to be having the same issues based on their online hiring posts and how many of their disgruntled customers we’ve absorbed.

    But it’s not just a lack of warm bodies. Good technicians are difficult to find. The technical knowledge needed for our industry is not rocket science, but we are struggling to find people who have basic teapot knowledge, but also possess common sense, ahve the ability to diagnose or forward think, and ambition/drive. When we do manage to find a good tech they stay forever, but usually they are uninterested in moving up to leadership positions. They like the autonomy of having their own truck and finishing a daily schedule.

    We’ve never fired a technician. They’ve retired, gone back to school, gotten married, left the state, started their own (non-competitive) business, and died. Only one has quit in 15 years of business; he was a no-call, no-show.

    We pay 30% above industry standard, give bonuses, offer unlimited overtime, allow flexible schedules, pay for health and life insurance, provide all tools and vehicles, and offer continuing education.

    1. Anne Shirley*

      It sounds like we’re in a similar position. I work for a trades company in a non-tradesperson role, and we are in the same boat: totally desperate for technicians. We have no trouble finding helpers or even fresh-out-of-trade-school entry level, but as experienced technicians, some of whom have been with out company 30+ years, hit retirement age, we are facing a serious knowledge gap. We pay competitively and I think the people we do have are genuinely happy, but there just aren’t enough experienced people to go around. Wages only continue to go up as we try to match market rates, but we’re a locally-owned business, and the worry is that we’ll hit the point where we can no longer compete with the national chains, who can perhaps absorb the labor increases more easily. It’s been a real challenge and I don’t have any answers.

  284. lolly pop*

    My state university employer is still insistent on butt-in-seats work, even as Omicron cases skyrocket and extreme weather keeps shutting campus down. Remote work is by permission only, with an onerous application process which allows for favoritism.
    We’ve lost over 25% of my department as a direct result and people are either not being replaced or hired in under Before Times conditions. We’re in a very high cost of living area so most people can’t afford to live on their wages and the crushing job duties piled on newly advertised positions means we don’t get great applicants or get a lot of people who bow out when they realize how backwards we are compared to other universities and private sector.

  285. Cold Fish*

    I’m looking to move on but anything close to current salary (mid $40K looking for something around $50K, so not asking for the moon) wants ridiculous amounts of industry experience. Lots of transferable skills but most jobs aren’t willing to do even basic training. In AAM parlance, I have 10 years coffee pot painting experience looking to move into teapot painting but getting cut down because of lack of teapot painting experience.

  286. MissBaudelaire*

    I’m a fairly new manager at my job. We’re having a helluva time keeping people. We advertise to college kids interested in the fields, and they average about a year with us. Fine and dandy. The problem we’ve had now is that they’ve been told they have to go back to school in person, so that eats up the time they could have worked. Or their schools aren’t offering so many classes, so they can’t work when they were previously available, and their new availability isn’t something I can work with.

    The large hospital we’re contracted with made rumblings about us all coming back in person. We’ll lose more people, as we had begun to hire nation wide for these remote jobs. And–to be honest–some of us just do not want to go back in person. It’s an unnecessary exposure. In addition to that, the parking situation is a nightmare, you have to wait thirty minutes for the over crowded shuttles. No one wants to do that.

    We also just plain don’t pay enough. I’ve had people come through and state this is just too much work for such little pay, and they can do better at McDonald’s. They’re right! I’m trying to change things, but I am just one little baby manager. We also advertise flexible schedules (true, you can submit availability and we honor it). But a lot of people who apply think it means “Work when you feel like it.” and get really upset when they learn that is not the case.

    The new variants made the thought of us going back in person fall silent for now. We’ll see how that turns out. I’m waiting for them to tell me that my whole division as folded and that I’m out of a job.

  287. RJ*

    I am from Canada so not sure if this is what you’re looking for, but…I was laid off effective April 1, 2020, and I only just found a new job, starting in a couple of weeks (so 21 months of searching). I am a skilled, mid-career level individual contributor with a 4 year degree supplemented by ongoing PD and courses.

    The job search experience was brutal…I stopped counting after while because my ratio of responses vs applications was depressing. The application process was often ridiculous. Strange combinations of required skills and experience, often vague descriptions of the actual job duties, no info about compensation offered, irritating ATS that required you to upload a resume and cover letter then re-enter all the info manually, crazy numbers of essay questions, quizzes and tests that didn’t seem to have anything to do with the work, requirements to either make and upload a video or respond to interview-style questions on one-way video, etc. It got to the point where I opted not to apply to places with too many steps because they clearly don’t value applicants’ time and I don’t see how that would get better if you got the job.

    1. RJ*

      Another thing I’m hearing from others I’ve met while searching is that employers seem not to want to train even the most motivated and accomplished candidates with transferrable skills. They keep hearing they don’t have enough industry experience (for example, people with 5 years experience in marketing with the numbers to back up their accomplishments being told that they’re just not qualified because they’ve never had a role marketing [Insert thing here] (SaaS seems really bad for that)).

      1. Marketing Middle Manager*

        Yes I work in marketing and this is absolutely a thing. Every hiring manager in marketing seems to think their role/product category/industry is a unique snowflake. I strongly suspect marketing is a field where a lot of people get promoted into management based on revenue results as an individual contributor, and they actually have no idea how to hire. They think the safest thing to do is hire someone who basically already does the same job…. which…. I don’t think most applicants are excited to literally do the exact same thing in their next role, so there’s a big mismatch there.

  288. Norumu*

    I recently sorted and shared about 3 years of the data about my application/being recruited experiences from 2019 through Oct 2021 on my own social channels, and it seems fitting to the topic here.

    My goal in sharing before was to provide a transparent view into the data of what the application process can look like from the candidate side, and hopefully normalize the discussion about whether it’s working or not for anyone.

    Data biases to consider:
    – Over 10 years of experience in field
    – Past employers/client history includes Facebook, Nike, Microsoft, AMD
    – Primarily marketing and marketing operation type roles
    – Primarily technical industries
    – Impacted by COVID-19 lockdown
    – Cis white male candidate
    – Roughly 50/50 local vs Remote positions (Estimate as job location data was not tracked and measured)

    The stats:
    – Total applications (includes recruitment outreach + followup): 364
    – Total response rate: 47.80%

    – Avg days to first response: 13.39
    – Min days to first response: Same day
    – Max days to first response: 176
    – Median days to first response: 6

    – First responses that were the rejection notice: 81%

    – Total interview processes: 31
    – Application to Interview process rate: 8.52%

    – Avg days to first response for roles that interviewed: 3.48 days
    – Min: Same day
    – Max: 36 days
    – Median: 1 day

    – Avg interview process length: 21.74 days
    – Min: Same day
    – Max: 124 days
    – Median: 17 days

    – Avg time it took to hear back after first interview or screening call: 3.68 days
    – Avg time it took to hear back after the last interview: 9 days
    – Avg number of interviews per role: 2.67
    – Avg number of interviews per offer: 3.50

    – Total times a company ghosted after interviewing: 3
    – Ghosting rate after interviewing: 9.68%

    – Total job offers: 4
    – Offer rate after interviewing: 12.9%
    – Total offer rate: 1.10%

    1. ForeverLurker*

      I love this! It’s so helpful to see these stats. They really illuminate how much work goes into getting a job. You have a good amount of experience and some big name companies on your resume, but you still have a high rejection rate and experience ghosting.

      1. ECE Policy Wonk*

        Yes, this is just the kind of data nerd-ery I love. Thanks, Norumu!

        I did something similar when I was on the academic job market a decade ago, and I can’t seem to find it.

  289. NeedRain47*

    I’ve been looking at jobs in my field and although there’s been a post-vaccination flurry of activity, but to my observation it seems like this is just because people weren’t hiring/changing jobs during pre-vax uncertainty, and now they are. Wages aren’t more than they were pre-pandemic. Quite a few long time staff at my job have moved on since last summer. HR bemoans the “great resignation” and can’t understand why this is happening, but most people got 2% raises last year. The cost of health insurance went up, so my paycheck went down. Nevermind the cost of everything else. If the only way people can stay ahead of inflation is by changing jobs, that’s what they’re going to do.

    1. NeedRain47*

      I forgot to add, I’m a librarian. There’s a surplus of people with a master’s degree but little experience.

  290. RJ*

    I’ve run into nothing but frustration in my job search.
    -Ghosting by companies who’ve specifically asked me to apply.
    -One hiring manager taking it as a personal insult that I asked what support he’d offered his remote staff during the pandemic.
    -A company whose entire accounting department was remote wanted a senior hire….to be the only person permanently on-site. Even the entry level clerk was remote. This is very uncommon in my field.
    -Companies who want nothing to do with employees who want development and reject you outright if you state that as one of your future objectives.
    -Robo rejection after robo rejection

    I basically gave myself a job search break during the last two weeks of 2021 because I was running into obstacle after obstacle. 2022 and my restart has lead only, in the words of Simon and Garfunkel, to the ‘sounds of silence’.

    1. MissBaudelaire*

      I applied to a job, they responded that I was qualified, they just didn’t understand where I had gone to high school. Um. Okay, it’s right on my resume. I clarified.

      Then they sent me a rejection stating that I wasn’t qualified.

      1. RJ*

        Lord, that is annoying! My skillset is mainly in accounting, though my degree is business administration and I applied to a company looking for my skill set/experience. I was turned down because they only wanted a project accountant with an accounting degree. This despite the fact I was recommended by a former co-worker, who is a VP in engineering at their company.

  291. PrairieEffingDawn*

    I think it’s so dependent on your field. I started a new job in a pretty hot field in November and I’ve never gotten so many interviews. I don’t even think my portfolio is as polished as it could be and I still got a bunch of job offers. In my field, it does seem like companies are having a hard time finding qualified candidates. My new company is in a notoriously low paying industry but didn’t bat an eye at offering me the salary I asked for. My department has also been trying to fill an open senior role since I started two months ago and they haven’t found anyone yet.

  292. anon for this*

    Our company has 8 open positions (~100 person company), not including a few that were eliminated and workloads “redistributed” to existing team members because they couldn’t find qualified candidates. The #1 reason for this is that our company has taken a hard line on workers being in the office 5 days a week, no hybrid or remote options, and when people find out they bow out of the job search. The nature of our work is that it can be done remotely (and we did it well for over a year before they made us come back to the office), so candidates generally have hybrid or fully remote options. I don’t have any open positions on my team, but one of my peers has been having a REALLY hard time finding anyone qualified who wants to work full time in the office. She is hiring for a graphic design position, and has had many phone screens end after the candidate asks about the possibility of remote work.

  293. Bethie*

    Not sure if this will be seen – but I work in state government. We arent allowed to add new state positions, but our increase in funding from the federal and state level has increased about 30+ million over the last 3 years. We did get approval to hire contractors. Who make so much more per hour (no benefits) than state employees that several have turned down permanent offers. I make decent money due to my time invested and degrees, but we just lost an employee to another state agency due to higher pay (he was having to work a second job to afford mortgage).

    But when I look around I am being paid on a director level at other state agencies, without the title. And I am the only one working (my husband is in school FT and a STAHD), so taking a pay cut to get a better title isnt worth it.

    My best friend had to go back woth work during COVID – her husband is self employed and his business compleety dried up. But bc she was out of the workforce for 11 years, she is going into the office everyday (we live in a major city and traffic sucks) for about 32k per year as an admin in a state department. But this job is better than no job – and she gets benefits. However, the boss turned out to be horrible, and now we know why the position is open every year. Low pay + bad boss = people leave.

    Also- because this already a novel – I heard that older people (like my Dad) are retiring due to pandemic and other things. My dad retired in October at 65. he could have worked longer, but was like Nah.

    1. MissBaudelaire*

      I’ve seen the retirements happening. Several people from the hospital where I work have left. They could have continued working, but decided given the pandemic, they’d take the money and run.

    2. Fran Fine*

      The retirement thing is happening at my company, and we actually pay people very well, have always been super flexible (a third of the workforce has always been fully remote, myself included, and everyone else who could has always been allowed to WFH whenever they needed or wanted to), and have excellent benefits. We’re not even forcing people back into the office due to continuously rising COVID case counts, but older workers are cashing in their stocks and moving on. I totally get it too (and I actually really like my job) – if I could retire tomorrow, I would. If this pandemic has taught me anything it’s that life’s too short to spend it doing things you just don’t want to do.

  294. Lora*

    In biotech, in a major hub, changed jobs a few months ago after a ~6 month search for a senior role, currently hiring.

    On the searching side: ~25 applications, 12 interviews, 3 offers. Only about half of the interviews were of the “okay, I could maybe see myself working here” variety; the rest were, I knew I didn’t want the job within ten minutes of speaking to the hiring manager. This was more work searching than I have done in the past, but also I was looking for a more senior role and there aren’t as many of those around. I got repeated feedback from some of the good interviews (and one offer) that HR had nearly screened me out because they viewed my working in several different departments as meaning I was underqualified to work in any given department: apparently the interpretation was, I was scatterbrained? or didn’t have good experience in anything in particular? Even though this is actually exactly how large corporate executive training programs function, they have you spend time in other departments so you can be more of a generalist at the senior director/Head/VP level. I thought, but did not say, “ah, so you don’t associate a female name with executive training rotations…good to know…” HR was very focused on looking for someone who had moved up the ranks within a single department for a long time, which is not realistic, especially in this area.

    On the hiring side: Yeah, we also have some dinosaurs who think it’s still 2011 and they only have to post a description on the company webpage and they don’t understand why the unicorns aren’t flocking to them. Several managers in my department had to gang up on an executive who was trying to insist we hire PhDs for some roles where it’s just completely unnecessary, and we did have to threaten, “the company will not meet its milestones if we cannot get warm bodies, deal with it.” We revised the job descriptions to be more practical, and we will make up a job for someone we know is good, whose resume we receive through the grapevine. From colleagues, I am aware that I am very lucky to have the flexibility to do that. At OldJob people are quitting in droves, to the point that they are not going to be able to operate much longer because they can’t hire replacements. I talked about it upthread in a reply, but training people for biotech takes many many years – for the most part, you aren’t going to just go out and find a replacement for someone who leaves. Pay in my area is mostly not a problem, the majority of companies have adjusted their pay rates accordingly and the few who haven’t, have hemorrhaged employees. CurrentJob pays in probably the 70th – 90th percentile, but we still don’t have many resumes coming in. We have a contract headhunting company for more senior roles but they aren’t very good – when they brought me in, there was a whole Thing with, in my corner, “I can’t take less than $xxx,000 in cash” and in their corner “what about stock options? We don’t think they will want to pay that much…that’s above market…” and I had to be sort of nasty and say, “do you think my mortgage gets paid in stock options? No, I need money. $xxx,000, firm, that’s that.” I’m looking at getting contract-to-hire for the more entry level and 3-5 years experience positions because people act really skeevy about “well I don’t know this person, what if they are not a good fit” and it’s easier to say “hey they’ve been here three months and we like them, let’s offer them a pile of money.”

    So, yeah, there’s a lot of stuff going on. HR not being very good at understanding technical hiring is nothing new or unusual, it’s pretty common, and a good company will push them aside and let the hiring manager make the decisions. Some of my colleagues who struggle much harder with hiring, are really fighting that – their HR groups who fail to hire people or level them correctly (thereby disappointing candidates) have been given far too much power to make uninformed, inexpert decisions, and screw them up spectacularly. Our training pipeline is very long and this has always been the case, and there’s not a great way to speed it up. Mostly we’re just facing a lot of competition as a ton of money is being poured into new startups, and there are simply more companies all hiring for the same jobs: typically one or two senior researchers and a platoon of 3-5 years experience Masters degrees to work for them, plus a CFO.

  295. The Most Sarcastic Pickle*

    My company is struggling to fill empty roles in a timely way because we are still insisting that people move to our location although almost everyone at our very large home office has been working remotely since the beginning of the pandemic. We’ve proven that most roles can do the job well remotely, but the company still won’t consider it as a permanent option. Even outside of the pandemic my job involves coordinating with people in the field or overseas so it doesn’t make any sense for me to drive to an office every day to communicate by phone or email when I can just as easily do it at home. The company is losing out on good candidates who don’t want to physically move here and have other options. (And we’re large enough to have people already working in every state and internationally so that’s not the issue.)

  296. acl*

    My son has been in contact with a company for a job for over 2 months. Had several phone interviews that went well, including one with HR. An in-person interview with 3 executives that went well. After the in person interview they told him that they were seeing one other person, implying that they would make their decision after that interview.

    He followed up, appropriately. No response. He followed up a few days before Christmas with the person who would be his supervisor, who commented that he could really use him now, said to “stay tuned because they really liked you”, said he didn’t know what the hold up was but would follow-up the next day. There has been no further response. It’s an established company that’s starting a new division, and son’s skills would fit in nicely. His background is similar to the would-be supervisor’s. It’s been very frustrating.

  297. ForeverLurker*

    I started searching for a new role at the end of August. I just accepted a role right before Christmas and will start in another week or so. As a manager in my old role (data science at a tech start up), I was dealing with higher than usual turn over, and struggling to keep my team fully staffed. We still got plenty of applicants for our roles, but I’d say they were slightly less qualified than usual and more likely to have competing offers. Beyond that, our recruiting team was slammed and struggling to meet the hiring volume we needed (they are only human!).

    As a job seeker, I found that there were plenty of roles to apply to, but the recruiting process was even worse than it usually is. My take is that the market is really inefficient right now. In my industry, everybody is at least vaguely open to changing roles and lots of jobs are allowing remote work. Removing the constraint of location can open up a huge flood of applicants. Jobs that might only have had a couple hundred applicants before now have over one thousand. In that situation, I don’t care how good your cover letter is. Nobody is going to read it! It isn’t malice or laziness. It’s an impossible situation.

  298. LMM*

    I’m a mid-career journalist, with some additional experience in marketing/branding content, and have been interviewing for full-time roles since August 2020 (when I was laid off) with zero success. I did get one temporary role, was promised it would become permanent, and then they hired someone cheaper.

    Fortunately, I have been able to utilize my contacts and forge a decently successful freelance career, but the job market is frustrating in my field to say the least. I know what my freelance clients pay for my work, I have many clients who apologize for not being able to pay more – and it does not come remotely close to what any employer has entertained in my 1.5 years of job searching. There is also a prevalent attitude that anyone can write, why do we need to hire an experienced writer, that I see often.

  299. consultinerd*

    Mid-level in A/E/C industry here. Anecdotally all our external partners/competitors say they’re desperate to hire. We definitely are (after running understaffed for two years and counting) and are thankfully getting some strong entry level hires on board shortly. What I have seen is that strong entry level engineers (by which I mean have relevant coursework, some kind of internship experience, and can communicate technical work) are frequently getting multiple offers, which has put pressure on us to get our process moving faster (which is good!). I’ve interviewed for a couple of roughly lateral positions and gotten strong interest, but all of them have been at organizations I had prior contacts with. Pay may be inching up but not by leaps and bounds like seems to be the case in some industries.

  300. tinyhipsterboy*

    I think it partially depends on the industry, but if I have to hear another “nobody wants to work” rant, I legitimately might scream.

    The couple of applications I’ve put out in the video game industry for writing jobs got no response, nor did a proofreading application. The only application I’ve heard back on was because I’d met someone in a Discord chat that worked there.

    I know a lot of the retail and food places in my area are having a hard time finding people–we’ve gotten papers advertising job openings every time we’ve ordered Panda Express in the last few months, for example. Pay’s usually advertised at around $17/hour (minimum here just shifted to $12.80/hour with the new year), but I’ve heard that fast food and retail only really hire at those prices for the first couple of hires to get people in the door, then drop the pay pretty quickly after they get the first few people.

    Many of the jobs I’ve seen advertised on LinkedIn and Indeed still have high requirements despite being entry-level, require in-person work, or aren’t entry-level at all.

    For what it’s worth, my father is high up at a corporation that has stores throughout the USA and is expanding to other countries as well. He’s started multiple conversations with me and with family about nobody wanting to work and about having a ton of positions open with almost no applicants, but those positions had been posted well over a month prior and had such requirements as being willing to move anywhere in the United States at all depending on company needs???????

    My father also had a data entry applicant that was straight out of college (a little older than the typical 21-year-old; I think he was around 25-26) and had been working for his college with extensive spreadsheets and data entry duties for years. He made an offer, and the applicant countered and asked for more money ($25/hour, iirc). Apparently, dad and his coworkers scoffed because the applicant had “no experience,” and then full-on rescinded the offer completely. I get the sense that my dad is pretty typical for Corporate America, so take that as you will. Yikes.

    1. MissBaudelaire*

      There are some places around here that offer a fairly high wage…. but when you go apply you hear that’s only for something like third shift, and they don’t actually promise you’ll make that wage for very long. Husband worked a job where he got an extra dollar, but every week they told him that was a generous bonus that they were looking at taking away.

  301. Justin*

    It’s a mixed bag. I’m getting some bites, but I’m also reaching in some of the apps (because I want to find a real lasting job). So for me it’s mixed, but I also have a weird set of experiences and education that requires a bit of explaining.

    It doesn’t seem all to different from previous times I’ve been looking, maybe slightly better but then I also have more experience, so.

    Academic hiring is terrible, but then it always has been. Thankfully I am only half-interested in that, and most of my applications are standard jobs, for which I am getting the above-mentioned occasional interest.

  302. Nicki Name*

    I’m in tech, where it was a job seekers’ market even before the pandemic. Now it is absolutely bananas. My company pays competitively, allows permanent remote work, has good work/life balance, and offers good benefits including unlimited PTO which it actually expects us to use. It has a bunch of unfilled positions (partly due to a recent expansion) which are getting filled, but slowly. Like the commenters above have said, the positions that sit open longer tend to be the more senior ones.

    I see the shift to remote work mostly covered from the point of view of workers who like it and companies who are trying to figure out this new thing, but I think increased awareness of it as an option is also benefiting companies like mine by expanding the pool of people who’ll apply to a company based in a different area. The positions that are being filled are being filled from all around the country.

    Retail in my area seems absolutely desperate for more workers. There are signs on almost every store door, application forms right at the entrance, plugs for company job sites on receipts, big banners advertising the minimum starting rate, etc. And this is in an area that’s had a relatively low rate of COVID deaths and hospitalizations (for the US).

    1. NervousNellie*

      I am looking for a new job as a Product Manager or something similar, would you be willing to point me in the direction of your company?

      1. Nicki Name*

        It’s small enough that don’t feel like I can name it here without potentially outing myself, but it does have product manager openings posted on LinkedIn, and it’s in the “Hospital and health care” category there.

  303. Rosie*

    We filled our entry level roles easily enough because it’s in an industry people are eager to break into but phew the struggle to fill the roles that need someone experienced because we cannot get approval to offer salary that matches the experience. And we can’t even tighten the range to just the upper end even though we aren’t looking for entry-level people at our satellite site to fill those roles because they did hire entry-level people at the main site (which has so many more capacity to train them up) and they might “get jealous.” I know if I was job hunting and saw that range I’d consider it a red flag and keep scrolling ugh.

  304. NervousNellie*

    I have noticed something that the news hasn’t…. yet. At least I haven’t seen it reported. Companies don’t seem to know what anyone else is doing. They aren’t checking the market. I’ve been surprised several times to find out that companies did no market research and don’t know (for example) that the McDonald’s is offering 17$/hr. Corporate concerns seem to have at least gotten a clue in the last few weeks or so, but companies need to do market research and it’s painfully obvious when they aren’t even doing cursory reviews.

    On the upside, a huge number of jobs in my area are now posting, on huge signs, in front of their businesses the minimum starting wage, instead of “Up to 14 dollars an hour!” which I saw last summer. Now it’s “Start at 16.42! Managers and Leads start at 18!” Much more transparent. But, again, even with signs out there, publicly available, companies don’t seem to be doing the market research.

  305. AsterRoc*

    I’m currently job hunting. wouldn’t say employers are desperate in my field (academia), but they’re actually replying with rejects rather than just letting me assume, and that’s pretty unheard of in previous years.

  306. SJP*

    I’ve had a terrible time job hunting for the last year. I graduated in December 2020 with a degree in finance and six years of experiencing managing a small retail business. This does not seem to matter to potential employers. I applied to about forty positions between December 2020 and September 2021 and got three interviews. One company was completely uninterested in my business education and experience but offered me a contract position doing UX/UI design. (I have a lot of graphic and web design experience but have never wanted to work as a designer.) I accepted the contract work in April 2021 and gave up on finding a job in finance last fall because the search was exhausting and depressing.

  307. I just want a job*

    I got my second bachelors degree in STEM in May. I also have several years of basically project management experience. I have recruiters calling me with offers for $20/hr. I live in a high cost of living area. Benefits are a joke, no WFH, no parental leave, and vacation time you can count on one hand. 20 is about 10/hr below the bottom range of what I should expect. I turned down one job in August because he was parading around red flags like they were free donuts. Since then, I’ve applied to at least 30 jobs. Most don’t get back to me. All entry level positions. Even turning on the entry level filter on job boards does absolutely nothing because a lot of those jobs are requiring professional qualifications that take 8+ years to get. Once I do get through interviews, I’ve been ghosted on several occasions, even after 10+ hours of interviewing. Companies are not showing any kind of urgency, either. I think part of it is that a lot of positions I’m applying to right now are open due to “growth”, so they’re not filling someone’s shoes, making the urgency a little less. Even recruiting companies are culprits in ghosting right now.

  308. ECE Policy Wonk*

    Education policy / research / advocacy here.

    I’ve been casually looking since summer, and then looking hard-core since Thanksgiving (33 applications in December). It seemed like the first wave of musical chairs happened over the summer, and those were top-level folks who moved around. I only applied selectively and didn’t get any interviews. Now it seems like it’s the second wave of musical chairs, and I have 4 interviews just this week. I’m a mid-career alt-ac PhD with a very diverse skill set, FWIW.

    I have noticed that the number of positions full-remote has increased since summer, and salaries are being posted in advertisements, so I believe our industry is starting to be responsive to employee demands.

    As usual, most of the interviews are because I know someone or know someone who knows someone, or have worked with someone tangentially, etc. I haven’t gotten a job without an “in” since I left entry-level roles.

    What gets me is that there are still (well-regarded) organizations who don’t even bother with an auto-reply.

  309. Mindi*

    I applied for a job (higher Ed, newer medical school) that was posted as remote. Early in the game, they told me they changed their mind and wanted this person to relocate. Assured me no true timeline. Great interviews, an offer (low-ball) that I negotiated more for, but a expectation to relocate (cross-country to a much more expensive area then we currently live in) in 7 months! I know they want me and my experience/institutional knowledge (5+ years at a well-established med school). Why so strict on this relocation? The job can be done remotely, but they insist I need to be there to understand the landscape, even after I insisted I could understand it from afar with travel to the area on demand. Do you want a great fitting candioor not?

  310. irene adler*

    I’m seeing entry level Quality level job ads boasting an $8K hiring bonus (yeah, with some strings attached).
    BUT! No salary or wage is cited in the ad.

    As for me, I’ve been hunting for over 5 years. In fact, last half of 2021 I had oodles of interviews (may dozen). Had like 8 job prospects going at one time. It was crazy!

    Every single one passed on me. Every one.
    So I don’t believe for a minute that places are desperate to hire.
    I’m taking a break from the job hunt.

    I will point out that, all of a sudden, my current job has realized that I possess some mad skills that only the retiring vice-president had. So, I’ve been asked not to go elsewhere. But that realization hasn’t been backed up by much of an incentive.

  311. anon for this*

    I work for a Fortune 100 company in the financial services sector. I took over a management role last year and have been trying to fill 2 roles on the team since. These are somewhat niche roles, but well paying (six figures for folks with 5-10 years experience), and not any of the crazy work hours stuff seen in other parts of this sector.

    The reason I’ve been hiring so much is that we had 3 people leave in the past 6 months, but I think that was a disconnect with leadership where they sold the role as ABC when it’s actually a lot more XYZ, so I’ve been trying to be really upfront about needing to balance ABC and XYZ, which I know isn’t going to be everyone’s jam.

    I’m seeing fewer applicants for these roles than we had in the past, and more competing offers (although that might be a sample size issue, because I’d never seen it before and then it happened twice).

    If anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears.

  312. Dandelion_Sponsor*

    I’m in Clinical Research. The market for CRAs is super tight. And for other positions. Be prepared to make an offer within 48 hours of interview or they will be gone. Lots of people going to other companies too.

  313. Delta Delta*

    I’m an attorney and I’m married to an attorney. I am very well connected to lots of other attorneys due to various boards and organizations I serve. In my area there seems to be a huge shortage of attorneys looking for jobs, and many positions remain unfilled. Mr. Delta sought to hire an associate and got only 3 applicants (and I read their materials; they all could have significantly benefitted from reading the AAM guides!). He ultimately hired one person who is right out of law school. It sounds like she could be a good fit, but it also sounds like her expectations are wildly out of touch for someone in her career stage. Mr. Delta is not looking to under-pay her, but could not pay her the six figures she thought she could command with no experience. Ultimately they settled on a fair salary for our geographic area and the size of the company, but it did seem like it took a lot of work to get to that point. Other colleagues of mine are experiencing similar issues and are having a tough time hiring.

  314. Bookworm*

    Being on both sides of this table, it seems to be a bit of both? Admittedly my work is rather niche but when I watched my supervisor hire for 2 jobs she was inundated with hundreds of candidates in the 2 weeks or so the post was up. And they were good so she had her pick and could afford to filter out people who might have been given a shot even if they weren’t quite what we were looking for. Some were definitely overqualified but perhaps were shooting their shots.

    On the flip side, I’ve definitely applied and not gotten anywhere. I thought I’d be a good fit and didn’t get a call back or get beyond a 1st round. With one I had an informal chat with someone who I had worked with closely for over a year (!) and I didn’t even get an interview. I suspect in this latter case it was a matter of mismatch but I thought given our relationship I would have been at least a courtesy interview.

    Also in my case: would say that it has very much helped me get an “in” if I knew someone with a connection. Some I managed without (thanks to AAM and Alison for all the resume/interview tips and guides and resources!) but most of my applications went better if I had an “in”.

    When the “Great Reshuffle” or “Great Resignation” (or whatever you want to call it) settles down, it’ll be interesting to see the research and studies that come out of it on why people left, what the hiring process has been like for all, etc.

  315. Kat*

    Currently job hunting. I have an MPH, with public health emergency training, and a year of post grad school work experience. Lost my job after a year, have been job hunting for a year. I’ve had probably a dozen interviews and finally had to take a retail job. I never get responses or interviews for the research jobs I have direct experience with, or even for contact tracing jobs. Still getting responses from my state health department and almost of my interviews have been with them. Of all of the interviews, I made it to one second round interview. That position was filled by a different candidate, but I had a very good rapport with the director and assistant director, and stayed in touch after the interview. They let me know they were hiring for a similar position a couple months later, and I hope to hear about an interview for that position this month.

  316. UKUK*

    I’ve been looking for a new job since the start of the pandemic and I’m finding there’s very little in my field of work and what is available is all at the director level. More worryingly most of the adds I’m seeing now are making it clear they expect people to be 100% in the office despite the work being completely suited for remote work.

  317. No Thank You*

    I didn’t realize until I read this thread that so many people worked in data science, engineering and computer programming. Evidently I missed the boat. I’ve spent the past two decades working in journalism and state government, topping out at a wage that apparently a 22-year-old new grad would snort at. This is pretty disconcerting, for sure.

    1. NoRulesandthePointsDontMatter*

      Same. Millennial with a Humanities BA and MA. I just cracked $50k in HR in Seattle. My response rate to applications has improved but nothing substantive yet.

  318. BronzeHandcuffs*

    Two perspectives:

    – Personally have not had much luck. Supposedly my field (legal – privacy/cyber security) is hot right now based on articles, new laws, and regulations. Despite being a board certified expert, I have not received many call-backs. The few I have are looking for 10-15yrs experience (check), a variety of certifications (check), and want to pay entry level salaries (womp-womp). I think my current title (VP-level with a company) sorts me into the “assume we can’t afford this person” pile maybe.

    – Another manager in my company is hiring and we hear all about “no qualified applicants.” For an entry-level job. Where they expect to do training as it is a niche field. I know they received a lot of applications, but not an area I manage so do not 100% know the quality. But when you aim for entry level that plays nice with others, I have to think it is an employer issue vs an applicant issue. That manager has red flags all over their department though, so maybe it is a good thing.

  319. JoblessGraduate*

    Finished my master’s degree in Dec 2020 and have been applying for jobs in my field ever since. Hundreds of applications have resulted in two interviews which were both for lower/entry-level positions rather than the positions that people with my degree usually have. Feels hopeless.

  320. JoAnna*

    I submitted quite a few applications in November /December but only gotten a few responses. I did get to a first round interview (after submitting a writing exercise), but wasn’t selected to go further. Thankfully I’m in a position right now where my spouse’s income will cover our expenses, so I’m just doing some freelance work at the moment and not actively searching.

    At the job I just left, we were suffering pretty bad because of low staffing. That’s one of the reasons I left, it was just too stressful and I was burning out. My manager kept claiming they weren’t getting any applications for our open positions. I’m pretty sure it’s because the salary was mediocre, and we have a competitor in the area who is offering more . Numerous people have left that company for the competitor over the first few months but salaries are still stagnant.

  321. Can't Think of a Name*

    I hire for a large healthcare organization, and we are definitely struggling to fill roles, even with a lot of applicants. It’s due to several factors, best summarized as:
    1) Skills mismatch (don’t hate me for this one!) – This is a challenge unique to healthcare and other highly specialized areas – we really can’t compromise on qualifications or experience, as often we are following federal and licensure guidelines.
    2) Related: Supply/demand – there are just more jobs than there are available workers. I was reading an article the other day that was saying in November there were something like 11 million jobs but only 4.5 million people looking for work. For some jobs, especially niche and specialized ones, there just aren’t enough people with the needed skillsets
    3) Nonprofit/For-profit competition – If you work in a nonprofit, grant-funded, academia, public, or similar-type industry, you are competing with the for-profit sector for talent, and by nature of the beast, salaries are going to be unable to compare. Now, there is a caveat to this. I have also seen a lot of people leaving their current jobs at these lower paying institutions or turning down offers for these huge salaries, but then returning to their old job/org or are job searching soon. Why? Because (oftentimes), the big money comes with big expectations – no work/life balance, toxic environment, unrealistic expectations, etc. So while the salary at first glance can be appealing and a huge draw, especially when you’ve been underpaid, you also want to make sure you’re prepared for the strings attached. The flip side to this is that the nonprofit/academia/etc. sectors have always historically underpaid and relied on passion, so ESPECIALLY in this market low salaries + burnout = not cutting it, and these areas are now struggling to find solutions.
    4) Candidates aren’t being intentional with their job search – I still see a lot of candidates applying to job that either are not a fit for their background and they don’t have a compelling reason/cover letter for why they are branching out, which tells me they’re just sending out resumes to see what sticks. Or they are applying to positions that they are not qualified for (I’m talking like someone with 0 experience applying for a manager position). If you are someone with solid experience/education but aren’t having luck with your search, you should take another look at your resume/cover letter and see if there’s anything there that might be turning hiring managers off/make sure you’re properly articulating your experience. Also, if you’re getting invited to interviews but then are ghosted consistently, it is worth looking at how you can improve your interviewing skills. Practicing with a friend and doing mock interviews can help!
    5) The best candidates are in high demand, so if a hiring manager doesn’t move as fast as possible, there is a high likelihood they will lose the candidate to another offer (I’ve literally had candidates where I reached out the day after they applied, we scheduled interviews for that week, and we still had them withdraw because they received another offer).
    6) Hiring managers are being unrealistic and not adapting to the changing job market

  322. Retail monkey*

    In my area (north texas), there are a lot of retail jobs hiring and i have seen the pay go up. 6 months ago cashier for a fast food restaurant was $8/hr and now its easily $10/hr. So, for us it is a employee’s market. However, i wondered if part of that is because of political beliefs. We are highly red, and we have had people quit/be fired from high paying jobs for our area ($20-$30/hr) becuase they do not want to get a vaccine to keep their jobs nor do weekly testing.

    1. The_artist_formerly_known_as_Anon-2*

      I think two elements of education are in order –

      1) The safety of vaccines
      2) $10 / hour, even in North Texas, is too low – economic Darwinism will take you out if you can’t pay more.

    2. LKW*

      Are you seeing jobs advertised or hearing from actual workers? I’ve seen a lot of internet posts from people who apply for jobs that are advertising one rate and then offering a much lower rate (and then they complain they can’t find people to work).

  323. Alice's Tree*

    As a hiring manager, I’m seeing an absolute dearth of applications for jobs that previously would have been swamped with candidates. We’re offering a livable wage and good benefits – not top dollar, but we’re a nonprofit – and getting no applicants. It’s weird.

  324. 100%thatlizzofan*

    We desperately need staff at my company. We are a non-profit substance use disorder treatment org and are often limited on what we can pay due to grants or funding, but we are absolutely offering the highest rates we can. Direct care staff get paid around $15 an hour and work in a 24/7 environment as para-professionals and it requires HS Diploma or GED. (Three years ago it was an $11/hour job!) I recognize that is a lower wage in the general market, but we’d pay $20+ an hour if we could. It just isn’t doable based on how the funding works. Some of our outpatient jobs require a 4 year degree and certifications in order for us to be able to bill for services, which limits us even more on finding staff who will accept the base pay of around 40k per year. We advocate and lobby our government representatives, band together with similar agencies and seek to be visible to decision makers about our mission and what will happen to our communities when people do not have access to our services because our staff literally save lives! We do our best to contact every candidate who meet the bare minimum qualifications. Out of the last 76 candidates, 38 have ghosted us somewhere in the process. Of those 38, 16 accepted an offer, we closed the job, set a tentative start date and paid for about $150 worth of pre-employment screenings required by our industry, only to have them fall off the face of the earth or email and say sorry, I changed my mind. Add in a vaccination requirement (which I don’t disagree with because we work with people who may generally be fragile) and our pool just keeps on dwindling.

  325. Me!*

    In my case, I was already unemployed when the pandemic began. So my experience may not match up with someone who’s working and looking or who started a job search during the last two years.

    I’ve read thousands of job ads, applied for nearly 600 jobs, and written countless cover letters over the last five years. This is what I’m seeing lately.

    –Employers still require more education or experience than the jobs warrant. Examples: listing a master’s degree for entry-level jobs as a preferred qualification, requiring degrees for jobs that don’t need one.

    –Most companies are still not being transparent about salary. I’ve started asking about pay in phone screens, especially with out-of-state companies. Some give me a ballpark number; others claim (lie) that they don’t have a range for the job.

    –I’m seeing more posts on LinkedIn that say “on-site.” We are still in a pandemic. We have a highly contagious variant circulating. States like mine have passed measures to ban public health directives. I’ve had interviews with people who yelled at me for wearing a mask or said blithely that they hadn’t had any problems with COVID and masks weren’t required in their facilities.

    –Unemployment, whether it’s due to the pandemic or not, is still being stigmatized. I have to walk a fine line when I answer “What have you been doing?” so I don’t sound too enthusiastic about indie publishing lest employers think I’d rather devote myself to my “hobby” instead of “work.” Grrr.

    –I’m getting fewer auto-rejections for applications. I assume this is because companies are short-staffed. If you even do get an interview, they’re likely to just ghost you after. In fact, one CFO contacted me about a completely different job than the one I applied for, scheduled a video interview, and then didn’t even show up. I gave her 20 minutes and sent two emails before I logged off. No one ever contacted me, and I will never apply to that company again.

    If I weren’t quadruple-vaxxed (two Pfizers, a booster, and a flu shot), I would be tempted to just go out and lick a grocery cart. I’m tired, y’all.

  326. GoingNuts*

    I started looking for a job in April after leaving my master’s, and was ghosted by most of the companies I applied to. Granted I was trying to target companies that matched the general field I was studying, but I felt like I was casting a reasonably wide net. It was actually really discouraging because whenever I would talk to people about the job search, the response was invariably about how “isn’t there a lot of people looking to hire right now?” and its amazing how much of a shot to your confidence it can be to be told that and still be getting no responses. I did get a job in November, working in a museum, but with the rise of omicron in my area its looking like my hours are going to be seriously slashed and they are definitely not hiring more people.

  327. Transportation in SoCal*

    I work for the Transportation department for a local government agency in Southern California. We have had no problem finding good candidates for office positions (analyst level work requiring years of experience) but we are having the worst time finding bus drivers and technicians to work on the busses.

    Every transit agency in the area is struggling to find bus drivers. There are a bunch of different recruiting strategies (signing bonuses, increased base pay, more guaranteed days off, in-person job fairs, etc) but nothing seems to help. I am not sure the cause. We have had some retirements and some people quit and we can’t replace them. We used to interview 60+ candidates for the bus driver position but the last recruitment less than a dozen qualified for the interview.

    We are having a really hard time having enough drivers for the routes, which is the case for all the other local transit agencies as well.

    We also cannot find technicians to repair the busses.

    (Alison, just in case, please don’t quote this.)

    1. H.C.*

      Oh, I’m familiar with which agency you are talking about – I’ve been approached for one of the admin/professional role openings but personally hesitant to apply because that team has a really high turnover and I constantly see that area’s positions open & close on the regular even pre-Covid.

      But as a regular public transit user in pre-Covid times (and hopefully again once pandemic peters out), definitely keeping fingers crossed for more drivers & technicians to be hired.

  328. View from Both Sides*

    I was on both sides of hiring in 2021.

    At the start of the year, I was one of several hiring managers at a company that was trying to grow rapidly. We made a few hires, but fewer than we wanted. Most of the people who turned us down did so for more money elsewhere. So, we worked with HR to make some adjustments both in what we were paying internally and in what we offered new people. I thought the better offers were helping. But, our CEO was still unhappy with how slowly we were hiring, and recruiting pointed fingers at the hiring managers saying our processes were too slow and that we were being too picky. The CEO told us indirectly if we didn’t drastically change our processes hire more people in the next quarter we were going to be fired.

    That was when I decided to do some hands on research on the hiring practices of other companies. I talked to several companies. Mostly, I just stopped telling the random recruiters from LinkedIn, “no thanks.” But, I also applied to a few jobs blindly. I quickly found myself with 3 offers, one of which I happily accepted. There were a few companies that were still invited me to final round interviews when I was deciding between offers that I just rejected. There were a handful of jobs that I applied for in July that only got back to me with automated rejections in December. Presumably, they were cleaning up their ATS systems.

    I haven’t had to do any hiring in my new role yet. But, I’m supposed to be making two hires in the first half of 2022. I’m curious to see what the search is like at my new company.

  329. Dora*

    I’ve had a few interviews where employers explicitly said that the job is tough, and not to expect a lot of work-life balance. At first I actually self-selected out of the interview process because part of why I’m leaving my current job is for better balance & boundaries. However after I heard it in three more interviews, I thought that this must be the new normal? Anyone else experience this? I’m applying for middle-management jobs, nothing very high level or C-suite.

  330. HHD*

    UK here, C-level in charity/voluntary sector in a health related field.
    I’ve made CEO 5-10 years before I thought I would, because retirement through burnout has hit our sector really hard in the last 9 months. I applied for less than a dozen roles, was shortlisted for 80% and offered 2, so there’s definitely something going on at that level.
    In terms of recruiting I’ve been recruiting continously since January 2020, and it’s gotten noticeably tougher in the last year at every level. People have a much clearer idea what they’re looking for, whether salary or anything else.

  331. Zee*

    I work in a sector that is always pretty competitive (non-profit fundraising & communications). It’s gotten so much worse since a lot of people left their corporate lackey jobs to seek more “fulfilling” work. I know someone who is charge of recruitment for a large university’s advancement team and she said they are just flooded with résumés for every open position.

    1. HHD*

      We’ve been having the opposite problem, particularly for the more grant/contract side of fundraising. Very few applicants, very patchy qualifications and more than 20% of offers are rejected due to other offers or counter offers.

  332. Maria*

    I have been half heartedly looking at jobs within my field (State Government) – they are notoriously slow with postings, let alone the entire hiring process, even if one is currently employed with the State Government, regardless of position/experience.

    With my experience and with what I have found after having graduated with a BA in 1995 and an AS as a Paralegal in 1996, that REGARDLESS of the Industry – when applicants apply for “entry level” positions, these have never been “entry level” positions as employers are asking for 5-7 years, with pay being barely above minimum wage. Basically, for the past 26 years of having worked “professionally”, the expectation of employers is that they want the experience but not pay for it either with pay or other benefits – which in turn makes current and potential employees feel undervalued.

    Yes, there will always be exceptions in every industry, but the above tends to be the rule, rather than the exception. If employers truly are feeling that they cannot find people, then they need to reevaluate their current pay and benefit packages, along with any necessary and appropriate training that goes with the position.

  333. Tera*

    Partner lost their job in the early months of the pandemic in 2020. They have a specific set of experience in media that they’ve been trying to translate across industries. A handful of interviews, some making it through multiple rounds or even being in the final stage. No offers. Lots of ghosting or just not being responded to at all. Don’t understand the “So many places are hiring!” messaging that doesn’t align with their experience. It seems like equal parts ageism and also really unrealistic expectations for a “perfect” candidate that ticks 100% of all the boxes.

  334. SoonToBeExHRperson*

    We’re hiring for a nonprofit. We post salary range (usually 10-15K range), mask and vaccine requirement, are clear that it is remote work till further notice for most jobs and if a job will be hybrid or onsite when we return to in office work. We also post the full job description and benefits information and actively post on a wide range of job boards.

    For some jobs we getting 5-12 applications and for some we are getting 30-50 applications. Both numbers are low for us. We see a lot of unqualified people, but we’re also interviewing people we would never have considered before because of lack of qualifications as a result. It has been harder to find candidates that are qualified and we have had to rethink want versus need in several cases. Our training budgets have increased as a result.

    Of course, our HR team size hasn’t increased despite the heavy work load of recruitment, pandemic, and remote work management, DEIA work, and more. Always the scapegoat, never the economically supported group.

  335. Fizzyfuzzy*

    I agree with a lot of what’s been said. Employers are claiming they want to hire and “no one wants to work!’ but they refuse to offer what potential employees are actually looking for: a living wage and decent benefits with a work life balance. I’ve also had several interviews where they claim the priority is getting someone in asap but refuse to do away with outdated hiring practices of endless phone screens and rounds of interviews that don’t seem to add anything to the process. However, I have a friend who works in the frontlines of healthcare who said the hospitals in my area are verbally offering candidates jobs within fifteen minutes of the first zoom interview, so it seems industry specific.

  336. Product Manager*

    As a caveat, I work for a software company in a hot area. Recruiters are beating down my door. My salary has doubled to ridiculous levels. Colleagues and friends say the same – anyone currently in a job in software R&D is sitting pretty in my area.

    But this is for anyone who already has a job in our industry. Good luck finding a job out of school without leveraging an internship into a FTE conversion. Even <2 years experience and you might still be flinging your resume into the void.

    Everyone has a worker shortage if they only want people with 3-5 years experience at the minimum, whether or not they're willing to pay for that experience.

    1. Alexis Rosay*

      Yes. The Great Recession and worker surplus put companies in the mindset that they would never have to train anyone because they could get experience workers for cheap. They still haven’t changed their mindset.

  337. Lab rat*

    I think the labor shortage in my field is real. I work in an essential business that doesn’t get a lot of news attention. We help scientists get work done.

    In March 2020 we all put on PPE and kept going. I felt fortunate not to lose a job or get a pay cut.

    In summer 2021 I started casually looking at job ads. I see something I’m qualified for most days. Most ads volunteer the pay they’re offering, and $15/hour is a minimum that these employers try to beat. A couple of my coworkers accepted job offers elsewhere.

    WFH is physically impossible, so the WFH wars aren’t happening to us. I read about the wars on AAM and am bemused.

    Out of nowhere my company offered the ENTIRE staff a 5% raise. Officially it’s to offset cost of living, but I think it’s retention pay.

  338. Mantis Tobaggan, MD*

    My job hunt this past summer felt criminally easy, but much of that was probably due to the difference between searching as a risky new grad (from a humanities PhD, seeking non-academic work) back in 2018, and searching now with a couple of years of good experience and some accomplishments under my belt. I had two offers in my field (public policy) before I started searching in earnest, each with no formal interview.

  339. BoratVoiceMyWife*

    On one hand, I’ve never felt more desired in a job search as I have over the past six or so months. I get multiple cold-call messages on LinkedIn weekly, most of which are offering roles that actually fit my skill set and career path in one way or another, and there’s an absolute abundance of relevant roles for my experience being posted. Salary ranges even appear to be pretty good!

    On the other hand, I’ve had a ton of opportunities to interview into late stages for multiple roles and I’ve only made it to the offer stage once, and ultimately I declined it. I can’t work out whether it’s because there are a million candidates competing for each role, or if it’s because I’m shooting myself in the foot somehow, or whether employers are going through the motions to be able to say “we can’t find good help,” but it’s been a frustrating and fruitless search.

  340. YetAnotherGenXEngManager*

    We’re seeing hundreds of applicants (qualified or not – mostly qualified) for entry level/junior engineering roles (1-2 years exp, internships count) – I hired 5 candidates out of a single job posting last month. More senior roles are nearly impossible to hire for right now, especially if you’re looking to diversify your team. I am not at a FAANG, so definitely losing some people on the pay scale. We are 100% upfront about the pay scale though, because that’s the way it should be. As an engineering manager – recruiters are blowing up my inbox, even for things that are laughably outside of what I actually do.

  341. frostedlexicharm*

    I work in a civilian position in law enforcement, and we’ve been trying to hire (for 6 mos now) for a different front-counter ‘citizen facing’ civilian position. We have good pay and benefits, and a livable wage for our geographic area (CA Bay Area). We post the job, get 70+ applications, and discover that the applicants can’t pass the background check. And we’re not looking for squeaky-clean – we understand people may have had a ‘misspent youth’ and as long as it involves no felonies and was definitely In The Past they’re still a very viable candidate.

    We cut the 70+ down to 20 for interviews, and 7 no-call no-showed (1 called to say they’d tested positive for Covid and were going to withdraw and we encouraged them to apply again in future). Of the 12 interviews, we had 5 complete whackadoos.

    – The candidate who discussed her miscarriage and subsequent hysterectomy when asked a generic common interview q about a time they’d overcome something.
    – The candidate who said they would not be able to keep their personal feelings to themselves if a citizen came to the counter and, for example, wore a MAGA hat or BLM t-shirt
    – The candidate who claimed to be a good friend of “Sgt X” but didn’t seem to notice that “Sgt X” was there in the interview room with him, and went on for a good while about their supposed friendship.
    – The candidate who stated during the interview that they had no intention of taking the job, they just wanted us to know that we should be defunded and we were all corrupt, and they hoped that by wasting our time it had kept us from harming any additional BIPOC. (All 3 of the interviewers were BIPOC.)
    – The candidate who was recognized by the Sgt sitting in on interviews as someone they had previously arrested on a felony charge who explained it away as “yeah but I legally changed my name and I haven’t committed any felonies since then, just misdemeanors”. (Which meant they’d lied on the original application, which requires a list of previous names and any convictions (not arrests or charges, only convictions) … )

    For reference, the last time we hired for this position in 2018, we had 4 openings and they were all filled during the 1st attempt.

    We’ve now posted the position again and have set up interviews for next week … crossing fingers.

    1. frostedlexicharm*

      and just in case, please don’t quote as I’m not authorized to speak on behalf of my agency.

  342. A Feast of Fools*

    I’m in internal audit and have an M.S. in accounting, and two professional certifications. I get LinkedIn messages from recruiters several times a week and people from my extended network have called offering jobs — not offering to extend an interview, but “I have an opening, the pay is X, the benefits are Y, can you come work for me?”.

    My department had huge turnover last year because people were having similar experiences to mine: Job offers dropping in their laps. The folks who were poached away were either CPAs and/or had professional certs (CIA, CISA, etc.). Some left because it was time to do something new and others left because the move involved a promotion and pay bump.

    My department VP went to HR and got our pay bands raised, based on info from the people who were leaving. We had no trouble replacing the folks who left, and they ranged from entry level to managers, and levels in between.

    My impression is that there was a Great Reshuffling of people in accounting / finance last year. No new job openings (from expansion or growth) but just swapping folks among the companies in my area that are large enough to have accounting, finance, compliance, and audit departments.

  343. Niki T*

    Trying desperately to hire caregivers. We start at $2 over minimum wage $($16) with 3% raise at 90 days and annually. Offering a $500 sign on bonus, paid training, benefits and flexible schedule. IF people apply, they don’t show up for the interview. If they interview, they ghost us after the job offer.

  344. Dragonfly7*

    I applied for 10 part-time and/or seasonal customer service positions last fall to supplement my full-time income (I have over 10 years of experience). Despite having full availability outside my weekday 8-5, four didn’t respond at all, three sent the standard “thanks but no thanks” email, one ghosted me midway through trying to schedule an interview and reposted the position twice since then, one turned out to not be quite what was advertised during the interview process, and the last, which did offer me the job, was only paying $10 an hour and less than 10 hours a week.
    On the other hand, when I updated my LinkedIn profile earlier this week to “Open to Work” and connected with a few more people, one of my new connections immediately sent me two openings at their company, and at least two other people from their company have looked at my profile.

    1. Dragonfly7*

      We have a really small applicant pool for our latest opening (15 compared to the usual 30-40). However, the past two times we received across-the-board raises, the starting hourly pay for most positions wasn’t automatically increased as well. That means the pay for this position is now barely more than what Target, Wal-mart, etc are offering per hour. It also means there is barely the same difference between what I earn and the starting pay for a manager, so I have little incentive to move up internally.

  345. AshK434*

    I’m a data analyst specifically targeting remote roles. I’m really surprised by the low number of employers offering remote roles (particularly the Fortune 500,big names companies), so I’m disappointed on that front.
    I don’t think I have good anecdotal data since I resumed my job search in mid December which is clearly impacted by holiday schedules. When I was job searching back in August (I put my search on pause for a few months), I’d get phone interview requests within 1-2 days of submitting applications. I’ve had no response to the 5-8 applications I submitted so far. Again, I can’t tell if it’s due to the holidays or something else. Interestingly, all of the applications I submitted in this recent batch required I provide a salary range so I probably have a higher salary range then they budgeted for.

  346. berryjo*

    I started actively applying maybe the second week of December. I interviewed with 2 companies before the holidays (though one is at the company my former boss went to and she actively recruited me to apply). Tuesday I got 3 “thanks but no thanks” emails from other places I’d applied to, then yesterday I got an email advancing me to the next round with Company A, an email from Old Boss saying please be patient while we get caught up and expect to hear from us next week, requests for initial interviews from 2 places I’d applied to the night before, and a recruiter saying they’d seen my profile on LinkedIn and would like me to apply to a job I hadn’t seen (and am not interested in because it’s too much like what I did 7 years ago). This despite the fact that for the first time ever I’m applying for jobs that I feel like I’m maybe not totally qualified for and I’ve stopped writing cover letters. Definitely the most action I’ve ever seen during a job search, though I have also never applied to so many places at once (partly because I used to agonize over cover letters!). I am in a pretty location-specific industry and have never lived in that location, so forging a career in it has been a lot of luck, but the pandemic has definitely increased the number of places open to remote work, which means I have a lot more choices of places to apply than I ever have before. I am also at the senior manager/director level, which many people have noted is where they’re seeing openings, so that may be a factor. I know my own current company has barely hired anyone in years (and had significant layoffs in early 2020), which is a major contributing factor to me looking elsewhere–I’m not willing to do the work of two people anymore.

    I haven’t gotten as far as salary negotiations yet, but I’ll say I’ve been far more demanding in the “salary expectations” field of applications than ever before and for the few roles I’ve seen with salary range posted it’s much higher than what I’ve seen in the past. In my initial HR screening with Company B I was clear that by leaving at this point in the year I’d be forfeiting my annual bonus at my current job and that I’d expect to make that up by making the change and he said yes, that was no problem, they could do either a signing bonus or even further increased salary. He did ask specifically why I was looking to make a move and commented that they’re seeing a lot of people receive counter-offers and retention bonuses from their current employers. It certainly seemed like a concern they’re trying to mitigate.

  347. Maya*

    I work in childcare, and while I’m not the one doing any of the hiring, I know we’ve been having a lot of trouble keeping roles filled. Over the last year, there have been a ton of people getting hired and leaving within a few months. I think it’s just because the job can be very intense at times, and is one of those jobs where someone might think they’re up for it but change their mind after an actual day of work. I do think we have managed to nail down some good people, and I plan on sticking around for a while, but it’s just one of those “passion” jobs like teaching where you have to really like the good parts to make up for the bad.

  348. Always Happy*

    I spent 18 years at my previous employer working in the collections field. When I first started, the staring salary wasn’t too bad, as the monthly commission checks more than made up for it. As the years went on, they raised our base pay and kept screwing with our commission structure. I left and went to a company with a much better work life balance, benefits are wonderful as is the office culture and the PTO….what sucks is that we are the are the lowest paid in our company(call center) and we are the first line of defense in taking calls for our members. When I look for jobs now, they only see where I was coming from and I get low balled every single time.

  349. Eliza Doolittle*

    We’ve had a bunch of positions open up in my department through a combination of new positions being added to handle increased demand, people moving to other departments, and some retirements. I’m nowhere near the hiring process so everything I hear is just rumor mill, but I can say we’ve seen no interviews happening. I don’t know if this is just the usual bureaucratic slowness or if they’re struggling to find candidates they want to interview, but it feels like these positions have been open for a long while. It makes me wonder how serious they are about actually wanting to fill some of these positions, or if they’re going to let it drag on.

  350. Anonymous Luddite*

    My current employer is struggling to hire for several reasons.

    For me, I think their time off policies are archaic (very limited holidays, two weeks vacation a year for 1-5 years, three weeks 6-20 years, four weeks 21+. As bonus, no paid holidays for the first six months, which means if you’re hired in the second half of the year, you get Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas Eve and Christmas unpaid.)

    They are also caught in a bit of a pay bind: They recently advertised for llama trainers with 5 years experience, paying $25/hour. This caused a stir with the llama trainers we had in house who had been with the company for 6 years, who would be training the new hires, and who were making significantly less than $25.

  351. Wordsmith*

    I’m not actively looking because I started my job less than a year ago and I really like it, but I keep an eye on what’s available. It’s the kind of role (technical editing) that used to come up only rarely – I’d see a couple postings a year – and now I’m seeing lots of job ads for it, and several recruiters have contacted me in the last few months. Also, my current company threw some more money and a title bump at me recently, I assume to make sure I didn’t get itchy feet. So it seems to be a good moment for this kind of work, but I don’t know how the actual hiring is going.

  352. GenXisReal!*

    I have been working in financial services for over 15 years. About three years ago I thought about leaving my company for greener pastures and started applying for jobs (about 50 in a six month period). All I got was a text interview with a bot, and no call-backs.

    In mid December of 2021 I started casually applying to some of the suggested jobs from Glassdoor & LinkedIn. Before I had even applied for 20 jobs I got 3 call-backs and two interviews. The third one is pending. And these are all remote jobs.

  353. Unimpressed Underling*

    I’m not actively searching, more just browsing. But so far I’ve had a couple recruiters ghost me, one turn me down because I have green hair (cause that really affects my performance in a non-public facing role), a couple automatic rejections just to see the job reposted a couple weeks later and of course the usual want of years of experience but 20-40% less in pay. Also, the higher ups in my industry (legal) have barely tolerated WFH during the pandemic (the “you can’t possibly be working if I can’t see you” mindset) though it is more than doable so most job postings say the position has to be on-site. It’s even to the point that my former boss isn’t able to hire me at his new company because they won’t give him to budget to even match my current salary and he knows better than to ask me to take a major pay cut.

  354. Leslie Knorp*

    I moved across the country from a large Pacific Northwest city to a smaller, but still fully metropolitan city in the South in March of 2021. I found part-time remote work quickly through networking, but I was full-on job hunting for something permanent for the last 10 months and wasn’t able to find a full-time position until this month when I negotiated a new contract to make my current position full-time.

    I have 9 years of experience in Executive/Administrative Assistant work in a multitude of industries, from real estate, to aerospace, to e-commerce. I applied to MANY MANY admin jobs and would wager that I didn’t hear a peep from about 70% of them. I got what appeared to be an automated rejection letter from about 25% of them. I had interviews for the last 5%, none of which I was formally informed about being rejected for, I was just ghosted. Sometimes it was 1 interview and then a ghost, sometimes it was up to 5 and then a ghost. All the positions where I made it to the interview stage required “Skill Tests” with varying degrees of relevance. Some were personality tests that included prompts like “Do you believe human beings are inherently good/evil” with the “Strongly Agree-Strongly Disagree” range of options. Some were tests that seemed startlingly similar to school standardized tests. Only ONE had any direct relevance to the position. These tests took anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour and were “mandatory.” I was not compensated for my time.

    I have seen the same postings that I was rejected for (or not considered at all) still listed on job sites months and months later. A lot of them don’t have salary listed, and the ones that do have salary listed are consistently, offensively low. Think $5-8/hour lower than my starting salary just out of college 10 years ago… And this is for positions listed as “entry level” but also say require 3-5 years of experience… I just DO NOT UNDERSTAND. I could genuinely make the same salary (if not more) at fast food locations near me.

    I am very lucky to have been able to find contract work that is now full time, but the depression, frustration, and frankly ANGER that stems from the way companies are treating job candidates has not yet abated.

  355. Ollie*

    From a hiring manager perspective, this market is like nothing I have EVER seen. We lost 12 people during our hiring process to other companies they were further along with or internal promotions. It has forced our company to be more competitive in terms of salary, which is great. My own sister interviewed at my company and at the same time had another offer and one on the way.

    Be hopeful, searchers!

  356. Muttin*

    I’m in Higher Ed (non-institutional but academic appointment), and we’ve had a slightly harder time finding candidates but that’s largely because of outdated notions of what we should be “requiring”. I recently started a new job at another university, and the recruitment cycle was actually fairly quick, for once — I’d say if you are a mid or high level white collar worker, you have a leg up right now in your search, though it’s not as if you can name you price on salary/benefits, either.

  357. Cordelia*

    Our area has a shortage of workers for most positions. Highly paid, 6 figure union jobs are advertised on all the local avenues including facebook, which I can’t remember seeing before. The local manufacturing places cannot find enough workers to run shifts even with high pay. All retail locations are hiring. Anything health care related is offering large bonuses. The local pharmacy was offering to train assistants. Stores, and restaurants, even regular business stores have had signs up saying they have reduced hours due to lack of staff.

    As far as our family is concerned – My adult son was given a $5/hr raise after two months of manufacturing work at his first job out of high school and my adult daughter was promoted to a full time staff position at a non profit after less then a year of work. My husband sent one job application in for a city job at our small town. They interviewed him, called references, and called to offer the job in 4 days. I applied for one job, found a second job offer via craigslist that I also applied for the same day. The second employer did a phone interview next day, didn’t look at my resume or call references, and just hired me. I love this job, but being hired was shocking since I have not worked at a traditional job for 10 years. In the old times, I would have been lucky to start at retail and work my way up to more responsibility!

    So the news stories seem pretty true for our area -although I’m sure some positions don’t pay well enough to compete, there are good jobs without people.

  358. Social worker*

    I work in healthcare (at a hospital) so we do have significant need for more employees. As for the wages? I think they’re competitive, but that’s just my perspective (I’m a social worker and I make way more here than I would in community MH). The issue is there aren’t enough applicants for nearly all roles we have posted, but notably RNs, CNAs, and Medical Assistants. We’re all competing for the same ones, which is challenging. As for why do I think there’s such a shortage? Well… overall healthcare employs a lot of women, and with quarantines, school closures, daycare closures, and just diminishing resources in this C19 world guess who is (more likely to be) stuck home with the kids? Women. So, sure, pay could be a factor, early retirement could be a factor, C19 could be a factor… or it could be a few things, and in healthcare I’d bet big money on C19 impacting schools and childcare on why it’s hard to find employees.

    1. Washi*

      I’m a healthcare social worker too! And yes, we are hiring for literally every possible role with fairly competitve pay. I agree on the disparate gender impact and I also think a big factor for us is the understaffing has turned into a vicious cycle, especially for the nurses and CNAs, who are expected to carry these huge workloads and understandably just leave after about 6-8 months. I’m getting burned out myself, physically and mentally. I have a higher caseload than ever before and am also getting pulled into stuff like helping to feed or move patients. I’m also pregnant and am just trying to make it to my due date at this point, and then I may not come back. I love the work but I’m just so tired.

      1. AMT*

        Private practice is probably stealing a lot of candidates. I liked my stint in psychiatric social work despite the chaos and mismanagement, but as a therapist in private practice, I make *vastly* more than I ever did at any hospital or agency—in fewer hours and with a thousand times less stress. I quit my agency job during COVID and I’m sure many others did, too. I anticipate employers having to pay much more in the future to get anyone other than new grads desperate for clinical hours. It’s just not worth it for many of us with COVID layered on top of existing problems.

  359. Sharon*

    I’m a nurse. My previous employer made one last final change that switched my mindset from “well, healthcare is on fire everywhere, might as well stay,” to “if I’m guaranteed to have a bad time, I’ll do it for better benefits and pay somewhere else.”

    Within 10 days of updating my resume and submitting to a few positions I had received 3 job offers and accepted one. 9% raise, free parking, better union representation, and a practice area I’ve always been interested in!

    2. Kate in Colorado*

      A few years ago I applied for an HR Specialist position that wanted someone with experience working with payroll, benefits, recruiting, onboarding- the works. I applied and they were very enthusiastic about my experience and wanted to interview me…and then told me the position paid $13.25/hr. This was at a ski resort in an area with a high cost of living and $13.25 is less than what most tipped employees make around here. I was completely insulted and told them good luck finding someone with my experience who will work for that rate.

  362. a good mouse*

    I think part of it is a case of employers and employees not finding each other. I just got hired after a year of unemployment, and the company (which I hadn’t heard of so I hadn’t looked at) reached out to me based on my LinkedIn profile. We ended up being a good match, but during the interviewing they said they’d been aggressively looking for people all summer and fall because they couldn’t find people with the skill set. So we were both searching in our fairly niche industry and nearly ended being ships passing in the night.

    1. Wintermute*

      This is a super good point.

      I think one thing we are absolutely seeing is the weakness of the current job hiring model, there’s a huge labor pool out there, there are jobs out there. I can’t believe it’s entirely an artifact of choosy beggar companies that want decades of experience on entry level salary or want unicorn skill combinations, some of it is just plain market inefficiency.

      The interesting thing is that market inefficiencies are opportunities for arbitrage. While silicon valley is focusing on increasingly trivial app startups, this is a place where you could genuinely make a mint and be useful to society by being disruptive.

  363. RedinSC*

    I am both searching and trying to hire. It’s kinda miserable all around.

    On the search side, for every 4 jobs I apply to, I get maybe 1 notification that they’ve gone with someone else. Everyone else it’s just a black hole. I often know they received my resume and cover letter because of automatic responses, but after that, there’s no communication. I am qualified for these jobs, but a couple of things could be going on, lots of applicants, or my cover letter and resume aren’t what they are specifically looking for.

    On the hiring side, we sometimes get a lot of applications, other times not so many. We’re hiring for all levels – Entry – Director level. We’ve had no shows to interviews. We’ve scheduled interviews and people seem to get offers before we even have a chance to interview.

    We are pretty proactive, in that we don’t wait for a closing date, we start reviewing applications as they come in and start interviewing those we feel we should, so it’s not like we’ve got a long wait time between applying and interviewing. I just think there’s a lot of activity going on right now.

    Anyway, it’s been VERY difficult for us to hire applicants. We had contracted with a firm so we know our salaries are competitive for our area, but we’re still in a high cost of living place, and people would like to earn more. We’d love to pay more, but we’re a non profit and are considered a fair wage company.

    Anyway, from my seat here, both hiring and applying has been a challenge. But we will just carry on.

    1. RedinSC*

      I should add, I believe our lowest wage is $19-20/hour for entry level, no experience type of jobs.

  364. Looking for people*

    I am having an extremely hard time finding high energy high growth entry level people. One of the biggest issues I am running into is people with the wrong expectations, I don’t know how many recent college grads think they will be managing a sales team in 3 years when the best sales people typically don’t ever become sales leaders.

  365. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

    I almost switched jobs in autumn. It was a very weird experience; I was the new company’s only candidate and the company I stayed with, despite staffing at the bare minimum for my department, essentially approached retention as “we can’t lose you because we can’t replace your headcount” and said as much. Both employers offered me the Sr. job title that had never been on the table before. So I do believe the labor-market tightness and a shortage of workers.

    What was weird about it is that I have never been in demand in my life. I’ll show up and I do the work, but I’m not exceptional or extremely well qualified. Pre-COVID, I could make a pretty good case that I am not qualified to even flip hamburgers. I’ve made posts in the past about how, as someone not having the Alphabet Soup in IT, I may as well not exist as a candidate–that didn’t happen this time. All of the sudden, I was capable of learning and developing on one platform did predict that I’d be able to learn a new platform.

    The other weird part is that the experience that my department requires is rare and niche, so we’ve had to act as if employees cannot be replaced in a timely manner and reinforcements will not be coming, period (i.e. our team cannot abide processes that are wasteful of employee time) for at least 10 years. COVID didn’t create the situation; I guess it just made it severe or obvious enough that even leadership & HR must take note.

    1. Wintermute*

      I’ve seen the same in some IT fields– especially anything cybersecurity and cloud.

      Companies are paying the piper for not wanting a pipeline and wanting to hire only mature, established professionals. But an entire industry of senior administrators is not sustainable because as much as they want them to senior security analysts don’t spring fully formed like Venus from a C-shell (IT puns for the win, in fact you could even say they’re not Bourne, they’re made!)

      They’re starting to realize if you want seniors and engineers you need to hire juniors and technicians, and need to be willing to mentor. That means anyone who can be slotted into a SOC technician role is going to have a very good time of it, or other comparable entry-level positions in other pathways that were previously “interrupted branches” that started at higher levels and expected to only hire people who made their bones someplace else.

  366. lnelson1218*

    Currently looking for something new and getting some nibbles. See how it all plays out. Not asking for outrageous amount of money, fortunately most of the places say that my desired salary is already in their salary range.

    The big problem that I seem to be having is that I want to concentrate on other areas of HR vs keep payroll on my plate. But everyone seems to be wanting to only discuss payroll positions with me. Everyone meaning recruiters.

    Where I currently am is also looking for a few sales type people. However, my current place pays on the lower end, so enticing people to work for less is harder. Fortunately our benefits package for the US is on the better side.

    1. NoRulesandthePointsDontMatter*

      Oh my god. The ads for companies with 300-400 employees that want you to manage HR and Payroll at the same time *facepalm*. I’m HR but don’t really know Payroll so I never got callbacks on those gigs.

  367. Sometimes Charlotte*

    My son was fired from a job that he has never missed a shift at, a place that is always hiring due to being “short-staffed”, for calling in pending a COVID test after both my spouse and I (with whom he lives) came down with it and he was also showing symptoms. They felt he should work. In customer contact. In food service. Why would you fire a heretofore reliable employee over doing what the WHO, the CDC, and common sense says is right if you are “short-staffed” or “can’t find good help”?

    It took him an absurdly long time to get that job considering how “desperate” the places he applied claimed to be for help. Most of the places he applied didn’t even interview him, despite continuing to advertise openings. These retail and hospitality outlets are just using a handy excuse to vilify the workers for their own desire to reduce labor hours.

    2. Wintermute*

      That tracks with what I’m seeing in similar food service positions. Everyone has desperate “employees wanted” signs– I actually quit going to my local popeyes because they put up a bullshit sign about “no one wants to work anymore!” sign on the drive-through (and I sent a nice scathing letter to their corporate office about that one, believe me)– but they don’t seem to actually be doing what it takes to attract employees or even get them in the store once they apply. I think desperate managers are so overworked that they’re letting hiring efforts slip because they’re also trying to keep the store running.

      that said I saw the first shots of a hiring war fired today: Little Caesars in the strip mall has a new corporate-branded (so it’s official from the top not just a franchisee posting something they wrote/had printed) sign advertising 14.99 an hour and benefits. We’ll see if the other businesses nearby start to follow suit, because if they don’t I know the only pizza place in town that’s going to be open in six months and I am going to be eating a lot of crazy bread.

  368. Laura*

    I’m currently looking and the biggest issue to me is being able to work from home- due not only to the ongoing pandemic but also that I live in a metro suburb area and would have to take a commuter train to work (and did for years and hated it!). Most of the jobs in my sector (non profits and religious organizations) still require at least some in person work so it’s been difficult to find any which would be more remote than my current one. Also, I know many non profit folks in charge of hiring at their organizations who are getting a lot of pressure to look for more male candidates to be more balanced, since so many have ended up as all female staff! So that is a strike against me as a woman applying to do office work.

  369. Jaded*

    Employers are eagerly taking applications to account for the PPP loans they took. Yes indeed, will post this job 20 times when there really is not job. Gotta at least make it look like we tried because of the loan

  370. NotLost*

    Everyone I applied to (about half a dozen organizations) responded. One company interviewed and hired me. It took about a month between my application and when I first heard from them, but then things went fairly fast. I am happy with the pay. They actually hired me in a job for a higher salary range than what I applied for.

    By the way, I am a woman, and this is the first time I negotiated my pay. I used your advice. It was a lot easier than I had expected.

  371. Alex*

    My firm (we’re civil engineers) is hiring like mad. We had a small layoff in April 2020, management immediately regretted it by September 2020 and refilled those positions as fast as they could, with priority going to those who had been laid off if they were still available (they mostly were not, it’s a high demand skill set!)

    We’ve grown substantially since, and I’ve noticed the HR process is more streamlined/faster/kinder now than it was during my hire in 2019.

    We’re still understaffed now, and pushing to hire more mid level people but they can be hard to find. There’s a lot of poaching from rival firms, and a lot of attempts to lure back past employees, including in some cases, people who were fired for cause. Life definitely stays interesting.

  372. Hiring Woes*

    I am currently recruiting to fill two positions, and recently hired for a third who started in December.

    The recent hire generated about 20% more applications than similar positions had in the past. The two current positions have generated fewer than 10 applicants each after weeks of being on job boards. The holiday season may be impacting that, but one of the positions is mid-level and the other is entry-level, both are widely advertised.

    It’s hard to know exactly why the applicant pool is so small for these – they are both above median salary for the role and the benefits package is very good at my organization.

  373. Wintermute*

    In my field I think you’re seeing a few things.

    in summary, before I get into the weeds if you’re in a hot field that’s growing you can get some pretty generous offers, including full-time WFH. As that becomes a norm a lot of people are sort of holding their breath, waiting to see if companies that insist on butts in seats are going to have to start paying a premium to attract top talent and if that premium filters down to people that aren’t in highly-competitive fields where skillset demand exceeds supply (like cybersecurity and cloud networking). People with high-demand legacy skillsets affected heavily by increasing retirement rates– in my field that’s things like mainframe analysts and programmers and support for legacy applications– are also having a very good time, and we’ve actually had to rehire some of our retirees at appropriately high consultant rates part time just to fill demand. People that need to be on-premises for their job, because it involves handling physical equipment or interacting with things that can only be accessed from secure internal terminals we’re hiring like mad and having trouble keeping people, three new hires have come and gone at our data center that I know of since spring in a position that before that had an average tenure measurable in decades. It’s so bad that they forewent the “must live within driving distance of at least one office” requirement for at least one contractor and have her in another state, just to avoid losing more people from that department, and despite the fact she can’t do all the job without being there.

    Overall, there are positions opening up, between people deciding to retire and multiple resignation waves related to covid. First there was a small covid response wave, people leaving because of safety reasons, and once we started ending full WFH there were people talking of leaving rather than returning, and that was modest but real (mostly in fields where that was easy to do, I applied for one of those jobs myself as a stretch, but it was too much of a stretch).

    On the flip side there was a lot of consternation and threats of resignation when my company announced we would comply with the federal vaccine rules rather than keep everyone WFH to avoid it (plus the CEO lied and said that WFH still required vaccine-or-test, which went over about as well as you’d expect) or just not do it (I guess some people just expected us to tell the federal government ‘no’ I guess?) That was one of the most entertaining town hall meetings I’ve ever been to, in a morbid way, if only because I didn’t know there were so many ways to say “we have to follow the law, it’s the law” for 45 minutes. When that was stalled in the courts it sort of put a lot of people in limbo. We’ll see how many of them put their money where their mouth is if it comes down to it.

    It seems like companies can’t win, it’s a divided America; if you don’t do enough to protect employees from covid good employees will leave, but if you do implement mandates and safety procedures then other people will leave as well, even if you’re not doing it of your own free will and accord. I don’t have the numbers to quantify it but it does seem to be happening. I freely admit this could be one of those things where how loud the people who are doing it are being gives a mistaken impression of their number, with visibility volume giving a mistaken impression of numerical volume. The number of openings speak for themselves though, we’ve lost a lot of people and so have many companies in our field.

    The problem is the business climate is still so uncertain only essential jobs are being filled quickly. It’s just too chaotic to make long-term plans right now. When they’re hiring they’re looking actively but they’re looking for high performers with good track records.

    In short in my area in IT it’s a great time if you have a good track record of success (including high WFH performance) and in-demand skills. If your skills are out of date or less desirable, or you have an employment gap then it’s a much leaner market.

  374. Educator85*

    I was recently asked to interview for a job that listed the preferred qualifications as a masters degree in a field related to the position and 3-5 years of experience. The interview would be a three hour Zoom call including a presentation by me on a topic TBD when I agreed to the interview. And oh yeah, the invitation for the interview came the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and the interview would be the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, meaning I would have prepare for the interview over the holiday. There was no salary listed. I wrote back asking for a range before a committed to the interview. I was told the salary depended on experience and was invited to give a range. I wrote back, to which they replied the job was ENTRY LEVEL and they could not meet my salary requirements.

  375. Hot-Cryptographer*

    I am seeing more than usual lower-level openings in my field (IP law), but much fewer than usual mid- and upper-level positions. I don’t know if that is because a) a lot of the Great Resignation has centered around those lower-level jobs that tend to be treated as more expendable, b) companies are trying to hire entry-level employees to do the work of senior employees, or c) just a fluke in my smallish local market.

  376. The Good Doctor*

    My position was eliminated just before Christmas, and the meeting where the workforce was told a number of positions were going, we were told by management that ‘it’s a great time to be looking for work at the moment’, like they were doing us a favour! I started looking a couple of days ago for a new job (I’m a niche specialist) although I had interviews for a position just before Christmas, and although there were extensive discussions about an appropriate salary as a condition of me interviewing, they still came back with an offer so low, the recruiter wouldn’t tell me what it was.

  377. Rara Avis*

    My husband was laid off in July 2020 due to the pandemic. He started a new job (in education) 3 days ago. That’s 18 months of job searching. He did find some work as a substitute during that time — no benefits, hourly pay, no work when schools went on vacation. We keep hearing that there’s a crisis in education — not enough teachers across the board, huge numbers of retirees, etc. — but that didn’t seem to be true in our area and his field. Due to his age and the way salary bands work in education, he’s also more expensive to hire than a younger/less experienced educator.

    1. Flower necklace*

      I work at a public school (high school level) and I think that it might depend on certification. My department is understaffed – out of 12 teachers, 10 have an extra class. We need at least another person, and that is after adding another position to our department just a few years ago. Two of our most recent hires have been educators with a lot of experience who switched departments. We need people, and I anticipate a long search ahead.

  378. Catwhisperer*

    I moved outside the US during the pandemic and this year was my first time job searching in another country. I work in Big Tech and it seemed like my peers in the US had super fast job searches (mainly thanks to the massive growth at TikTok – they headhunted at every other Big Tech company), so the 5 months it took me to find a job felt like forever. In hindsight, that was much faster than my previous job searches in the US and I ended up with 3 competing offers to choose from. We haven’t really experienced the “Great Resignation” because we’ve had government mandated lockdowns/sensible COVID responses, so businesses also aren’t as desperate.

  379. JTA*

    My 20something daughter looking for her first job applied to be a hostess at a restaurant near our house. The owner looked at her resume (straight-A student, professionally dressed) and told her that he would not interview her because he needed someone with experience. The next week he was on the local TV news saying that he had to reduce hours because he couldn’t find anyone to hire.

  380. awesome3*

    In helping professions – which are also the professions that are some of the most burnt out right now through working with the public in a pandemic, mental and physical health strain, and more, we are certainly hoping to hire more people, are there are always openings, and not many applicants. Nursing seems to be the exception that proves the rule, in the helping professions re: competitive bonuses, wages etc. The rest of the helping professions have burned out their staff but either can’t afford to or won’t pay more to fill the empty positions.

    On the flip side, in the for-profit sector I do feel like salaries and other benefits people can negotiate are increasing.

  381. Former Retail Lifer*

    In the city I’m in (and everywhere else, I presume), there are countless low-wage jobs that aren’t getting filled. If you show up to an interview for food service or retail, you’re almost guaranteed to get hired. The lack of pay, hours, and benefits aren’t attracting anyone. Many people I know that were working in retail or food service have moved to gig jobs (Uber, Instacart) instead. They can choose their hours and the pay is usually better than their previous part-time job. However, jobs that pay over $40,000 are still rare here. There’s still a lot of competition for those even though they don’t cover rent in the downtown area. My husband and a few friends are looking to change companies and are looking for these low- to mid-range career positions but no one’s calling them back. For positions in that range, I think there are too many people looking.

    1. Former Retail Lifer*

      For context, the $40,000 jobs the people I know are applying for (and not hearing back from) are mostly customer service or operations jobs in industries like insurance, the financial industry, and the automotive industry.

    2. Sloanicote*

      Also the danger! Someone working behind a counter in food service or on the floor in retail knows they’re having higher exposure. For people motivated not to get sick, that’s a bigger risk than a job like UberEats – and does that retail job have paid sick leave if you do catch Covid, or will they cover your bills if you end up in hospital? No.

  382. DJ Abbott*

    I’ve been wondering about that. I live in Chicago and the employers who seem desperate to hire are all restaurants and retail. It is easy to get such a job, but it pays the Chicago minimum wage, probably less if it’s a tipped position, and has the usual future of restaurant or retail work.
    I’m trying to switch from being a low to intermediate data analyst to something that has more contact with people, like customer service or administrative. I am not finding such positions that pay what I made before the pandemic (58k) and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m trying to change direction or because employers are skimping.
    There are lots of customer service jobs posted and most of them pay less than 40k. Administrative jobs at the level I would be at are not so easy because I don’t have the specific experience they’re looking for, like travel and scheduling meetings. Of course I could do those things – I did them when I was temping in the 90s – early 2000’s – but they won’t look at me unless I have extensive experience.
    After I had worked at the deli for a few months I started getting interviews for jobs with customer service/front desk/reception components, and I got work from a temp agency which is submitting me for a job that combines data and customer service. I even got interviews for positions as a banker! So I’m on the right track, I’m just hoping I can find something that pays enough.

    1. Wintermute*

      What field are you looking in? I’m in the NW suburbs and I’ve got some contacts. It’s a little strange for mid-end work around here unless you have a hot skill but financial sector in chicagoland is always strong.

      1. DJ Abbott*

        Thanks! It doesn’t have to be a specific field. I have a strong background in finance support and I’m hoping it will pay a bit better so I’m looking in finance and anything else that sounds like it would be a good job.
        I’m in the city and use transit so it would have to be in the city, not the suburbs.

        1. Wintermute*

          Fair enough, I’ve actually turned down jobs in the city because I want 40min or less driving from Schaumberg area. Where I used to work at MB Bank was bought out (I used to be at their center in Rosemont, right by the bus terminal) I saw that 5/3rd who bought them out had posted some jobs downtown.

          Have you considered insurance companies? Kemper has been on a buying spree, they just acquired American Access Casualty Company, along with a few other companies. They have an office downtown in the Aon building I think, but I don’t know where AACC’s office is, probably the burbs. I heard NW Mutual had jobs too, I think they’re on Wacker. I heard Farmer’s had a few jobs down by the lake but I’m not sure what field they’re in. Sadly most of the companies I know are in the Oakbrook/Downer’s Grove area or Elk Grove Village area.

          1. DJ Abbott*

            Thanks, this is very useful! I got my last job because someone in Spanish club mentioned a company that was hiring. :)
            I’ll check out all of these companies. I had thought of insurance, but haven’t had a chance to look at them yet. Good to have a starting point!

  383. Where to search*

    For everyone saying we are hiring. Where are you posting the jobs? I look at LinkedIn and see the same jobs every week. It makes me wonder if I’m not looking in the right place.

    1. Nicki Name*

      It depends on your industry. In my industry, the most fruitful general site is Dice.com, but a lot of jobs are only listed via recruiters, so if you never talk to them then you never hear about those jobs. Your industry might be totally different, though.

    2. Ewesername*

      I’ve been using Google maps to find businesses in a certain area or of a certain type. (IE: search for manufacturers). Google maps usually lists the company’s website if you click on the building on the map. Go to the company’s website to see if they have a career/employee/jobs section. I’ve gotten more interviews this way than using a site like Indeed.

  384. Res Admin*

    First of all, to clarify, where I am, we are a major employer for a multi-county radius and it is well known that our benefits and retirement options are generally well above what is available elsewhere and salaries are relatively high due to our size compared to what smaller employers can typically offer (we also have to meet stricter state guidelines). Even our temp positions have benefits. (Just pointing this out to specify the situation: I don’t think I am particularly biased and have worked places other than this employer, including one of our benefits providers–and I get much better benefits and salary here than I did working for that company).

    When I was conducting interviews a few months ago (mid 2021) for various admin/accounting roles from entry to very senior, we had a lot of people applying, however very few applications that were appropriate for the positions. For example: One mid-level position we had 87 applications that met general criteria, only 3-4 seemed the least bit plausible (one was a mandatory interview due to state guidelines), and after the interviews started, it was clear that only one of them was viable and we would have to start over if the offer was not accepted. The ones that got weeded out immediately had no relatable skills or qualifications (think of “volunteered to help coach a college softball team” for an HR position). We got lucky and managed to hire really great people–but in most cases, that was the ONLY candidate we could consider from that candidate pool and would have had to re-post the position if the offer had not been accepted.

    I was in a meeting earlier this week, and researchers were expressing frustration at having very few applicants and none of them were qualified (these were for laboratory positions, typically $35,000-60,000/year) and had been forced to recruit students from the med school who wanted temp jobs (as opposed to what would normally be full-time long-term positions).

    Around town, I see signs posted for locally owned businesses wanting to hire unskilled workers–as in offering a starting rate of $15-25/hours+benefits+retirement for servers (above fast food level, but not high end type place by any means). One had to delay opening of a new location because they could not find anyone to hire. This is a low COL area so those wages are actually decent (I understand that they would be poverty in some parts of the country). Minimum wage in this area was $8.65 at the beginning of 2021 and raised to $10/hr in Sept. 2021 (incremental increases to $15/hr by the end of Sept 2026).

    I don’t know how that fits in nationally, but that is what I am seeing here if it helps for comparison purposes.

  385. Mildly Panicked Hiring Manager*

    Having just finished a round of hiring in November, for a temporary position covering an employee’s parental leave, I can say that I got a little desparate. We posted in September, gave a month to gather resumes, started contacting in October, put a few people through to first round, and I had one (very promising!) person drop out right before the second round, which meant we had to go back to the pool, and then offered the job to someone who let me know they’d taken a different job the day before, meaning another round of second interviews! Arguably we should have padded the interviews more, which is a lesson I learned for next time, but I’ve never experienced anything like that before.

    1. Sloanicote*

      I watched my org experience this. It’s not that they had no applicants, or no qualified applicants (although maybe fewer than in past years, I’m not qualified to say on that) so much as they kept having people pass after they made an offer. They offered the last job to five people and they all passed. Part of it is the crappy wage and benefits, for sure, but they do provide a range up front so nobody could be completely surprised. I think they either had better offers or expected to get one. Did my org learn anything? No. They left the position unfilled and will try again at the same rate in a few months.

    2. Anonymous Luddite*

      OK, maybe this is just being naive, but you waited a month before contacting anyone?
      If I apply and hear absolutely nothing for that long, I assume it’s gone.

  386. I Wish My Job Was Tables*

    This is an interesting thread to read, thanks for everyone sharing their stories! I’m on the fence about moving jobs – I’m working as an admin assistant at a small nonprofit but I’m considering moving on and going into data management.

    I’ve realized that the parts of my job I love the most are ones involving Excel and spreadsheets. I love looking at data and making it easy to understand and access for people. I’ve also been learning SQL and other ways of querying databases. Meanwhile, the secretarial, event planning, and office manager elements of my job are my least favorite parts. My job is also low paying and not able to be done remotely, both of which feel more important to me now.

    Prior to this current wave, I would have stayed with my current employer and never thought about leaving – I have a three year gap on my resume and had trouble finding work that didn’t aggravate my mental health issues. I’ve been at my current job for over four years and have flourished, but I worried that my resume would disqualify me from any position that wasn’t admin assistant (which I don’t want to keep doing). Reading news about hiring and how it’s a job hunter’s market makes me feel more secure about trying to move into a job that actually suits me. Even more than that, I feel like I can actually think about having a career now, when I previously felt too discouraged from trying. There are advantages to staying in my current job, but the fact that I feel like I have options, instead of being trapped in a job I stumbled into, feels amazing.

  387. PleaseWorkHere*

    I hire for labor jobs. This week, so far, one of seven people has shown for their interview.

    I just got out of a meeting where we were debating the merits of picking up and dropping off employees without vehicles, buying bus passes, raising pay and requiring their own vehicle (this is not a mass-transit-friendly city) and bringing in temporary labor from other countries at our own expense for transportation, visa, housing, food, etc.

    We jokingly (sort of) have encouraged managers to take “anyone with a pulse” and see if it works out. I can’t get them in as fast as they are quitting or no-showing.

    1. DJ Abbott*

      Does your organization make employees feel appreciated and cared for? There was a lot of quitting and no-showing at the grocery store I worked at and it was because management was open about there would be no raises, everyone is part time and therefore gets less benefits, and the break schedule was draconian – one 15-minute break for a six or seven hour shift – which indicated they didn’t care about our health.
      Store management made it clear in every way that associates are not valued or appreciated. So associates didn’t feel any need to consider management when they made their job and life decisions.
      Paying more to people with experience or added responsibilities, a humane break schedule, and good benefits for part-timers would have gone a long way towards reducing the quitting and no-showing.

      1. PleaseWorkHere*

        I definitely don’t think the problem is showing appreciation/care. For our holiday party, we had a meal, sweatshirts, bonuses, prizes (including 2 70″ TVs). I have watched my boss write a personal check to an employee’s youth group, I just gave one employee a ton of clothes (she just came here from Central America and it’s cold here). If employees need to change their schedule for any reason, we do everything possible to make it happen.

        1. DJ Abbott*

          That’s great but… money and health insurance and PTO are more important to employees than bonuses and gifts.

            1. DJ Abbott*

              I don’t know if your company does this, but some companies pay a low salary and say they’ll make it up with a bonus and then either don’t give bonuses or give them in a way that seems to favor some employees over others.
              IME most employees are more comfortable getting the pay directly throughout the year or with an official bonus structure that’s based on revenue or sales and all employees know all the details of the structure.
              If it’s not the pay or benefits, could it be the work itself? Is it extremely physically demanding or dangerous? Do employees have all the safety equipment and training they need to do it safely? Do they get enough time to rest between shifts?

            2. DJ Abbott*

              I ask because that’s how I ended up feeling working at the deli. I am middle-aged and non-athletic and I found it too tiring to do full-time.
              In addition to running back-and-forth all the time you have to handle heavy chunks of meat that are five, eight, or 10 pounds, continuously. It’s strenuous and I ended up taking a temporary office job so I could leave instead of staying till I found a long-term job.
              Thinking about it I realize that probably no one will stay in that job longer than a couple of years while they’re in school, and those people will be stronger and more athletic than I am.
              When it’s like that, the company needs to build it into the business plan and not expect employees to stay long term… but still pay a decent wage and benefits, which will be incentive for employees to stay as long as they can.

  388. kj*

    One thing I’m seeing in my profession is the jobs that require in person have a hard time hiring and some people have quit doing the in-person side of our work if they can, even going so far as to change who they work with/how they work. Some part of me profession are suitable to do remotely, but others are not. Part of the problem is, due to insurance, there isn’t a difference in pay between in-person work and telehealth, meaning working in-person (which is needed at times) is not appealing. People are passing on any job that requires in-person. I get it, but this has fueled a shortage of appointments. We can’t hire folks for in-person work easily. Insurances are going to need to play a premium for people working in person, so employers can pay workers who work in person more. This has been discussed and many people from my profession are opposed, but it is needed, otherwise some work can’t get done. Employers (and in my field, insurances) need to pay a premium when people work in person.

  389. California living*

    In energy and so many positions open and cannot find enough people to fill. (Regulatory, engineering, Econ). Lots of people moving around, getting promoted, and signing bonuses.

  390. Nutty Boss*

    Friend that’s in hr was instructed by our CEO to low ball applicants that way they lost the unemployment benefits they were getting due to the new covid rules so they “would stop being government leeches”.

    Same CEO that told me to my face Covid was a government conspiracy.

    1. WellRed*

      If the salary is too low ball, this plan will backfire. Applicants aren’t expected to take absolutely anything with no regard to the job ir salary.

  391. Sangamo Girl*

    I’m in government construction and construction contracting. The construction industry is so hot right now we can’t get people to apply for professional positions that used to have 10-15 applicants.

    And the powers that be haven’t figured out the that world has changed and that this is not a blip. This is normal going forward. No one is going to apply, wait six months for a completely banana-crackers interview at which the interviewers can’t answer your questions or truly interact in a meaningful way, and then wait another three-six months for an offer.

  392. PostThePay*

    I’ve had good success in my job search this year, getting more interviews and offers than I anticipated, but I don’t think most recruiters in my industry are trying that hard or updating recruiting tactics.

    Job 1) Offered me about $15k less than what I was expecting. The negotiation was SUCH a struggle and they let me know. By the end, they were $2,500 less than my bottom and it felt like getting blood from a stone (which made me realize that any raises would be hard to get too). When I sadly turned down the job, they asked what they could do in the future to get a Yes from a candidate. I told them they should post the salary. I saw the job post go back up a week later… without a salary range.

    Job 2) Cool job at a nonprofit media company. Great interview and basically told it was a sure thing. I sent my Thank you letter. Heard nothing. Assumed something changed. Then EIGHT WEEKS LATER, they sent me an email asking to check my references as if we had spoken the day before. I had a job by then and politely declined.

    Job 3) Interview at another nonprofit media company. It was a panel interview with 5 people. Two had their cameras on. One person never spoke a word. One person said a single sentence. It was so deeply offputting.

        1. pancakes*

          There are several others, too. The Appeal, The Marshall Project, The Texas Tribune, and ProPublica are all nonprofits. I’m sure there are others I’m forgetting.

  393. Lynn*

    I was laid off at the end of October and I’m starting a new position on Monday, so here’s my experience! I have 20+ years of experience in Customer Care and Technical Support 1/2. I saw a mix of postings out there–some were laughable with less than $15/hour being offered and expecting coding skills and degrees. I even got a snotty email from an employer on an application I made, informing me that I was asking far too much.

    That said–there were also plenty of positions out there that fit my skill level and salary expectations ($70k). The employers who were trying to create a culture of respect and pay their employees a reasonable salary were easy to identify because they followed up on interviews, offered me the chance to ask them questions, and were straightforward about their salary ranges.

    There were enough employers out there who were actually trying to be good places to work that I didn’t have to spend time on the crappy employers, other than having to sift through their posts and the occasional recruiter email.

  394. GlitsyGus*

    I changed jobs a couple months ago and my search came down to every job where I reached out to the employer and applied, I was ignored or ghosted after the screening. At the same time, I had recruiters banging down my door and competing over me after I gave permission to Linked In to show my profile to recruiters. I ended up getting a really great position with one of the companies that sought me out.

    In my case it really is seeming like there are quite a few openings and positions out there, but companies are leaning more on recruiters and employee referrals than the applicants approaching them. That said, I work in a relatively specialized industry, and I’m not entry level, so I don’t know if this is a good cross-sectional observation.

  395. Becca H*

    My husband started a new job in December, but for the last eight months he has been actively looking for work. He has been ghosted repeatedly by prospective employers, sometimes after multiple interviews. He is a skilled Audio Visual Tech and has years of experience that could transfer to other types of positions (installation, project management etc), but it always seemed like employers were being very picky about hiring. He has a great job with good pay and benefits as an AV Tech now, but it was a long time coming.

  396. TheFunctionalWeirdo*

    I was approached recently by a recruiter for a Knowledge Base Specialist position. I like my current job, but I’m always curious so I checked out the job description. Oh my GOD. Responsibilities include:
    – tech support
    – designing and building the knowledge base
    – making content/articles for the knowledge base
    – creating training materials for various audiences
    – delivering that training
    – Process improvement discovery
    – search/data analytics
    And then my favorite part at the end. “Requirement to work flexible hours including weekends and holidays.”

    EACH of those responsibilities is a separate job. I told the recruiter I was wary of any job post that was cramming so much into a single position and she said “Well, that’s how startups work.”
    NO THANKS. LOSE MY CONTACT INFO.

  397. Bex*

    I work in a pretty niche field that has suddenly become hot (climate/sustainability NGO) and it’s brutal right now. We’re getting ransacked by big banks, tech companies and consulting firms who keep poaching our senior leadership and mid-level talent. We pay extremely well by nonprofit standards, but we cannot compete with Google and Goldman Sachs money.

    In summer 2020, we had a specific job opening that got ~100 applicants. That same position is open again and has 26 applicants, 3 who might actually be qualified. When we do find good candidates, we often lose them because they got a much higher offer from the private sector.

  398. Ewesername*

    I, like many people, was laid off at the very beginning of COVID. I used my small severance package and some of my benefits (I’m in Canada. Our COVID benefits were… decent) to enroll in a part time certificate program at the local college. I also spent a lot of time looking after my grandparents. I will confess, the first six months, I took it easy and recovered from some burnout.

    I’ve been seriously looking for 18 months. I chart all my applications in Excel – where I applied, where I found the posting, if I heard back from the company, if I was phone screened or interviewed.

    I’m in supply chain management. With all the screaming right now about how short staffed they are, you’d think it would be easy to get a job.

    Nope

    In 2021, I applied to 350 positions. Some in my chosen field, some basic admin positions.
    I had 45 phone screens or interviews. 5 went to second or third rounds. 22 rejection emails, the rest ghosted.

    Feedback I’ve gotten is:
    We’re looking for someone who will be staying long term. (I’m in my late forties but I stopped dying my normally wild hair during the pandemic. It got very grey.)
    We don’t feel you’d be challenged enough in this role. (I’m over qualified?)
    We don’t feel you have enough experience. (10 yrs in a management role… I’m under qualified?)
    You don’t have the right experience. (? Seriously)
    And my favorite…
    We don’t feel you’d be comfortable here. (This is code for “your wheelchair freaks us out” or “you’re a female in a male dominant field”)

    I’ve run out of unemployment so I’m applying for secretarial / admin work (remote and in office). I’ve also gone back to dying my hair a violent shade of purple because it makes me happy.

    The next person who utters the phrase “no one wants to work anymore” will be run over.

    (Thank you for this blog though. It’s been keeping me sane.)

  399. Tiffany*

    I definitely see eager to hire. At all levels. I am moving in the next couple weeks, and my employer has had an impossible time finding my replacement. To the point where I’m just staying on and working virtually (go me! It’s a fantastic place to work!). We had one qualified candidate apply, called him immediately to interview, and he no showed the interview.

    I’m pretty high level in a small organization, but we’ve been pretty lax with what we’re asking for – a degree in the field or a related field, and a minimum of three years of experience. I’m in charge of all the organization’s finances and HR, so I feel like this isn’t asking too much. But we only got one applicant out of maybe 30 that had an accounting/finance background at all.

    And we posted the job EVERYWHERE.

  400. SaltyandDepressed*

    I have years of experience working on marketing for multi-million dollar projects, I’ve managed everything from online events to major international partnerships and not one single response to an application even after paying for professional resume advice and applying down a few rungs on the experience ladder.

    The best I’ve received is two or three form letter rejections and the jobs I’ve applied for have all mostly stayed unfilled. I honestly don’t know what the heck people are talking about with a “good job market” right now.

  401. Jenn*

    I lead a function at a venture-funded startup, and I have to say that there is so, so much venture money around that it’s hard to hire even if you’re at a company known as an awesome rocketship. I’ve had more offers rejected in the past 6 months than I’ve had rejected over two different careers in the past 2.5 decades.

    We offer a standard amount of money – non-negotiable – based on some data sources and city rates. Unfortunately, those data sources are behind the insane wage inflation that certain jobs (like marketing roles) are seeing right now. On the bright side, the standardization means that sometimes we give candidates WAY above what they’re asking, so that means we feel okay about it.

    1. Jenn*

      I meant that they’re behind the times versus the crazy wage inflation in some functional areas. It’s been a long day :)

  402. FrustratedHRLady*

    I have been looking for a new position since July 2021 because I have to relocate due to my spouse’s job. We have been living on separate coasts while I look for a new position. Even looking for high-level positions in HR, I am rarely receiving responses. I apply and do not even get a rejection email. In two situations, I did a screening interview and a panel interview and was ghosted by the recruiter. I did not receive any response to multiple follow up emails regarding the status. I am also seeing jobs that I have applied to and not received a response reposted over and over again. It is very frustrating. Honestly, I was shocked as an HR administrator that practices that are so basic in my current organization, such as sending rejection emails (even if automatically through the ATS system), especially after interviewing a candidate, were not occurring in other organizations.

  403. DearGeorgianaILongToSeeHer*

    I’m a tech writer and recently started a new position. During my job search, I applied to 22 companies. Eleven moved me to the interview stage. Of those 11, I was rejected from 1, never heard back from 1, withdrew my candidacy from 6 and got offers from 3. For senior writers like me, the market is hot, but I have friends who are earlier in their careers who say there aren’t many entry-level positions open.

    1. Anonymous Luddite*

      Depends on what type. I live in a tech-heavy area, so software and programming tech writing is hot, hot, hot! But for mechanical writers, not so much.

      1. DearGeorgianaILongToSeeHer*

        That’s a great point. My area’s also known for software, so my comment is biased toward that.

  404. Jonquil*

    I’m not actively searching, but it seems a lot of the labour shortages are at the more blue collar end of the market and a lot of the readers this site seem to be doing more office-based work. For example, hospitality, retail, farm work, warehouse work, childcare, delivery/truck driving. The kind of jobs that are bloody hard work for not great pay in tough conditions. They’re also the kinds of jobs that have a higher than average exposure to covid, so there’s a strong possibility these industries lost employees when lockdowns hit due to businesses shutting/losing customers, or lost employees who needed to choose between caring for their kids and earning a wage, or lost employees who have died from or been disabled by covid. There is also a lack of cheap (read: exploited) immigrant labour due to travel restrictions.

    I think there are some specific shortages in specific white collar industries. I know my company is always hiring for software/IT/data/cybersecurity people (at least in part due to the growth in the online side of most businesses, and needing to switch the workforce to WFH).

  405. Lizy*

    At OldJob they had a ton of trouble keeping positions filled. It was definitely the lower/more entry-level positions that had the most difficulty with retention. It really wasn’t a bad gig, and benefits were pretty good for our area. The supervisor was really supportive and allowed us to be flexible with hours when needed (not typically a job that allowed for flexibility). To be honest, I’m not entirely sure why they had such difficulties keeping people. Annual bonuses, decent raises… the nature of the job meant sometimes you had to jump and put out fires, but it was definitely still a “oh well – do what you can” type of atmosphere.

    I had situations beyond my control in my personal life that initially led me to look for another job. I happened to be offered a position right when we were given info about raises and… wow. I *think* my outgoing-supervisor (who was generally a people pleaser) just gave everyone blanket “meets expectations” reviews and the company (after a pretty darn good year for revenue) took that as 3%. This was after a couple of months of us being told compensation was changing and raises would be based more on retaining the good employees. I didn’t figure a huge raise, but 5-6%? Very plausible. So 3% was… kinda a joke. At least 2 other employees who really had gone above and beyond the past year also got 3% – and we all felt a little annoyed. I honestly would have talked with my supervisor about it, to get an idea of what the heck the company was thinking, but I accepted NewJob and didn’t feel like it was worth it.

    I just saw yesterday that while they’ve filled my position (I’ve been gone about a month), they are now hiring for 2 others. I have a pretty good idea who left, and if they had just given them a little better raise, I doubt very much they would have left.

    1. Lizy*

      Adding now that I’ve read the comments: we did struggle somewhat with even getting applications for open positions at OldJob. At least for them, a lot of it was applicants wildly out of touch. One we offered a position to turned it down – they were commuting 40+ minutes one way and working 50+ hours and this job would have been a pay decrease (I think it was like $18 to his $20/hr), but it would have been a 10 minute commute and 30-40 hours/week (being paid for 40/week). Another wanted like $7 more an hour than what we offered. And again – wages are pretty competitive in our area.

      On the job-seeker side, I looked pretty hard for about a month / month and a half. I do not know how long NewJob was looking, but they moved FAST with hiring. I think it was maybe a week between interview #1 and offer letter. F. A. S. T.

  406. Dragon_dreamer*

    I’m seeing a LOT of “up to $15/hr!” meaning they’ll start you at $8 if you’re lucky. “Full time” invariably means management positions only. To get the top starting wage, you have to have a graduate degree.

    One local place even offered “immediate interviews!” with no mention of pay. When I asked about it, I was told I had to apply online before they would even consider talking wages. (Spoiler: I found out from someone else that it’s minimum wage, $7.50/hr.)

    It’s sad that my $12/hr part time wages as a student worker can’t even be met by most local jobs.

  407. DiplomaJill*

    The digital agency I’m at has had a lot of turn over in the project manager and developer role especially. At one point the pm department had like 60% the staff needed.
    They hired quick as they could and it’s back at the needed levels. They increased client rates going forward because market rates for salaries has risen. Not sure about everyone else, but I got two medium level raises in my inbox unexpectedly after hours this year, without any kind of negotiation on my end.
    Oh, and we’re all remote right now with no reopening plan in sight.

    I’m looking, slowly and without urgency. I’ve had a few interviews where the job was pulled back afterwards — when I heard salary range during the interview my feedback was that it seemed very low for a position at the level they were advertising.

    I’ve had recruiters contacting me and offering me payments for referrals.

    It’s weird out there.

  408. Sarah*

    I’ve been looking since just before Christmas (I work in digital marketing) I’ve seen a faster response from employers and much higher salaries – I currently have two offers after only a few weeks of looking (including the holidays) for over 20% more than my current salary.

  409. Surrogate Tongue Pop*

    I have 2 sides…

    As a hiring manager (in tech, but my team isn’t technical), I was able to finish all my hiring recently, but had to get creative to fill roles meant to be permanent, with contract-to-hire positions, as we have a huge backlog of permanent roles that recruiters can’t get through fast enough. I also hired one FTE, plus converted some existing contractors to full time. Happy my team is complete and I was able to come to agreements on all salary offers (enticing, without being way over the top for the roles at hand). I will give kudos to the in-house recruiters for doing a decent job screening resumes/applications, so I didn’t have to wade through much crap.

    As a job seeker, I recently interviewed with a very historic and reputable company in the city I relocated to. They were willing to pay my ask for this senior role, I had over 6 (!!) interviews with senior execs, many folks gushed about our conversations (I mean…GUSHED), and I was even told some information about who I could potentially draw into the new team from the company as I built up the team. Then…radio silence. I checked in with the recruiter after 4ish weeks and was told decision would come in 1-2 weeks. Nothing. Radio silence. Then one day, I get a voice mail informing me I did not get the job. So…thanks, I guess. Those radio silence periods coupled with the very weird gushing sent up at least magenta flags.

  410. J*

    I had a recruiter reach out to me to interview for a marketing job.
    I accepted, we chatted, she presented me to the client.
    Her client didn’t want to meet me because I “didn’t have enough experience”. The pay on the posting was $55k.

    Several days later I got a call from the recruiter. The employer had changed their mind.
    I agreed and attended the interview, put forward my best foot and all that jazz. He asked me what my salary expectations are.

    I said “I was hoping to be in the $55 to 65k range.”
    I knew the job posting was $55k, I was wiling to bend to $50k if he wanted to negotiate. What he replied shocked me.

    “You aren’t worth $55k.”

    Cool. So why did you interview me if you don’t believe I’m worth what you’re offering? Or is it that you were hoping I was naive and didn’t know my worth?

    I have a ton of relevant work experience, a diploma, and I’m fluent in English and French. (Paramount where I live.)
    If I’m not worth what you’re offering; Don’t contact me for an interview then try to pull the rug out from under me.

    Employers say they’re having a hard time hiring and retaining staff. It’s more that they’re having a hard time finding staff who’ll accept working in sub-par environments for pay that hasn’t kept up with the cost of living.

    I’m glad to see more and more people standing up for themselves. It’s about time.

  411. Cristina*

    I’ve been looking into data around the “great resignation” recently and finally pulled and graphed all the BLS numbers directly. What I found was that resignations don’t look abnormal at all compared to normal separations. I think the media outlets that are reporting on this are going by the BLS press releases which report on a monthly basis but can be misleading out of context. There has been a fairly steady increase in jobs available starting Jan 2021 but I suspect that’s from business reopening/ramping up. Both resignations and total separations look flat to me when seasonally adjusted. (This is with the exception of a massive bout of layoffs in March 2020.)

  412. Anonymouse*

    I was helping to hire for new roles on my team this summer while also looking for a new job myself, so I got a pretty well-rounded view of the (NYC tech) hiring scene. In my experience, companies really were desperate to hire and willing to be flexible on experience and salary. BUT they were still requiring multi-stage, intensive interview processes with candidates, and since recruiting teams weren’t staffed enough to handle the number of open roles, MORE balls got dropped. Missing candidates that went to the wrong folder, never following up, forgetting calls, the works.

    It took me about 6 months to find a new job, but I was being very picky about applying—I spoke to less than 10 places in that time.

  413. Wesley*

    Here in Australia there are a lot of recent articles featuring restaurant owners complaining that they can’t find enough staff. The hospitality sector has historically been filled by international students and migrants (who are not coming here now due to COVID) – people who are willing to accept shitty pay/conditions and illegal overtime for cash in hand. There is very little sympathy among the general public for these restaurant owners – they built their businesses on exploiting people who had no other options, and are now finding that their businesses literally aren’t sustainable without it! It’s very telling that the articles never mention the conditions and salaries they are offering.

    To sum up pretty much every other comment on this thread, employers who are struggling to find great candidates are the ones refusing to acknowledge that what they are offering just isn’t attractive.

    1. Ellie*

      I’m Australian too, and can confirm. Fruit pickers and other areas dominated by overseas workers who are routinely exploited make up the bulk of the vacancies. However, now that Covid is running rampant, a lot of sectors are short of workers due to sickness and isolation requirements, which is temporary but is making things worse.

      My company is in an industry that’s fairly isolated from Covid, and made the switch to remote work seamlessly. However, there were no pay rises last year due to ‘costs increasing due to the pandemic’. This felt like BS and a bunch of people have now left for other opportunities. They’re finding it hard to replace them, and have just started to increase salaries again. I’d suggest the issue is a combination of having a smaller workforce (due to everything from people being sick and isolating, not having stable childcare, others who perhaps don’t have to work deciding not to take the risk, and, well…. the people who have died or been impacted by someone’s death), on top of companies taking too much time to recognize the new reality and offer more competitive packages.

  414. onyxzinnia*

    I work in tech (in a non-technical role). I have never had so many recruiters flooding my email and LinkedIn as I have the last few months. Most of what I’m seeing is remote, midlevel roles at higher salaries. The pandemic has really made US companies much more open to remote candidates than ever before which is exciting.

    However, it feels like the recruiting process itself is stuck in the past. I’m seeing a lot of companies who don’t seem to know what they really want from the role or candidate; or they want to hold 4+ interviews for a single role. My record has been 7 rounds, another company wanted to do 9 rounds (I politely withdrew after round 5). There seems to be a big disconnect between the needs of the company and understanding the competitive candidate market.

    1. Picket line or bread line*

      Multi-round interview jobs sound so weird to me! I’ve been working for 15 years and never had more than one interview to get a job at all different levels. Is this an American thing?

      1. onyxzinnia*

        Not sure if it’s an American thing or a tech industry thing, to be honest. It’s been interesting hearing other people’s stories here.

      2. Parakeet*

        I’m in the US, have worked in a few different sectors, and most jobs I’ve ever had or interviewed for have had 2-3 rounds of interviews (I’ve never had more than that though). I just had a second-round interview (for a role that has two rounds of interviews) today!

  415. Alleira*

    Dept VP here in the upper Midwest. I report to the CEO and have hiring/salary authority. I see a lot of complaints from prospective employees here, but I am highly skeptical.

    I’ve got two open positions in rural areas where the pay is $70k+ with a company car, life insurance, benefits, etc, and I cannot find a single qualified applicant. If someone applied who had even a little experience, I’d probably pay whatever they wanted if it was within the realm of reasonable.

    At this point, we’re going to pivot away from looking at experienced applicants and go to the local college to see if there’s someone interested in being trained from the ground up. This has its own risks, of course, and it seems that younger people have zero interest in the insurance industry (why, I cannot say). But I can no longer keep doing what doesn’t work. Oh well!

      1. Alleira*

        It’s not a sales job. It’s a claims adjuster job in the NW Wisco area, which does require some experience (but we’re willing to train if the employee is willing to learn), and it does require in person meetings with insureds, etc. I have wondered if the in person aspect is part of the problem.

    2. Cloaking Device Engaged*

      “Younger people have zero interest in the insurance industry (why, I cannot say)”

      Because we’ve grown up with the perception that insurance makes their money by denying coverage. That is the heart of every sob story and go fund me campaign.

      1. Alleira*

        I’m sure you’re correct, but that’s a bunch of BS. Insurance finances are very interesting, but they’re not based on claims denials. Any insurer that uses claims denials as a basis for long-term profit will be out of the business very quickly. Property/casualty insurers generally make their money through what’s known as underwriting profit, which is basically a combination of controlling expenses and making good underwriting decisions. Loss is, of course, an important component of profit, but loss can be mitigated through a strong reinsurance program (among other things).

        From my perspective – and I’m a lawyer who never thought I’d be in the industry – insurance is an extremely stable with a lot of room for growth and movement because upper level management is in the process of retiring. Younger people who see insurance and think “boring” or “fraud” haven’t stopped to think critically about the stories they’re hearing and their credulity.

  416. Ashley*

    I was job searching from early 2019 until March of 2021, and I saw very little change during the pandemic. I had a resume with a decade of experience in my field, with multiple promotions and supervisory experience. My resume looked great, even if my soul was crushed by the employer. I was underpaid, based on the experiences of other coworkers who had left, and extremely overworked, so I finally walked away in late 2019 without another job lined up. I barely got any interviews for the supervisory positions I applied for, and was constantly turned down because there were other applicants with more experience. I got very few interviews in general, maybe one every other month or so. I got lots of messages about jobs I was way overqualified for, and those jobs wanted to offer me the same pay rate or less than I made 15 years ago. As the pandemic progressed, I actually saw those pay rates start to drop further. The job I finally got is with a friend who is trying to resuscitate a small niche business that was very profitable before the previous owner decided to try to bleed it dry before retirement – I’m not making what I should be, but I decided to gamble on a small business where I know I can trust the owner.

  417. Rulekeeper Willie*

    I really love hearing everyone’s comments. In my job, I work in oversight of Department of Labor grants at local level and I have been really fortunate enough to see a lot of different perceptions of the Great Resignation/Reshuffle since workforce l is all I do and think about. Here are some cool things I have learned:

    1. we have more jobs than workers. This is because of the mass retirement that happened within the last 16 months and most retirees are leaving with really good 401ks ( unlike Great Recession). Also, no childcare has made folks figured out how to survive without it which includes living on single income during covid. Also, when we surveyed households we found out that many folks who had multiple part time jobs decided to stop working because the spouse made enough and they were okay with the new level of income.

    2: Employers shot themselves in the foot early on. We found when employers started offering hire wages for new hires, their current staff left (duh) and this began the great shuffle. Now we have employers fighting against raising wages because of this. It’s too much to raise wages and hire new folks so we tend to see them really being ineffective in changing their ways. paralysis by analysis.

    3. People are upskilling like crazy but not with the colleges. Folks are taking small short term training to better polish their resume because they want in the demand for more wages. I did this too.. don’t blame them one bit.

    4. Good employers are thriving, bad employers not so much. These are the same employers who condemn people for not working but also taking a crap ton of PPP loans. (Eye roll).

    5. A lot of millennial workers want to work from home and have flexible schedules. We did a survey and that far outranked pay and title. The new wave of professionalism is here. If your business can’t offer it today, start rethinking your model.

    I could go on and on…..

  418. Jen*

    I really appreciate this question because I’ve been wondering it myself! I’ve never seen more openings in my field, but I’ve also been told over and over and over again that there are HUNDREDS of applicants for a single position. I’m still at my current position and have been looking to leave for over a year. It also seems like many of these positions are posting at pay that is significantly lower than before.

    1. Jen*

      Oh, one more thing! My husband is a chemical engineer and was feeling underpaid at his job. As soon as he put the word out he was kinda looking, he was poached so fast to a new company at a significantly higher salary and remote work that it made our heads spin. His previous employer is pretty mad because he’s “not replaceable.” (should have thought about that before!)
      So, some fields seem uber competitive, pay is dropping, and it’s impossible to transition to another job. While other fields should definitely be doing more to keep people.

  419. UnluckyHiringManager*

    I have been searching for a new administrative assistant and have had zero qualified applications. We are offering a competitive salary (which is listed in the ad) but the only candidates applying have no relevant experience and submit resumes filled with typos. We require cover letters and explain in the posting why they are important to us but most candidates don’t even submit them. It is very frustrating.

  420. Burger Bob*

    In my industry, people are finally burning out and quitting in what was an oversaturated market. But now that there are so many openings, people are being offered insultingly low starting salaries. Just ridiculously low ball offers. Like, my starting salary was considered kind of a low ball by my peers a couple of years ago, but currently they are starting to offer nearly $15 less per hour than my own starting pay. This is for a career that requires higher education and people are coming in with just as many student loans as ever, if not more. It’s ridiculous.

  421. LolaMN*

    I work in state government in Midwestern state in an admin, tech support role along with processing applications for a service. My division and state agency is hiring since we received a lot of federal and state funds in the past 6 months to a year. Fortunately, many positions offer remote work but you have to live in the state or a neighboring state. The application process because it’s government is lengthy and it takes several weeks or longer for candidates to be offered interviews from the time the posting closes. Some positions are permanent remote jobs while others require people to live in certain area. HR takes awhile to post new jobs. Where most companies take a few weeks to fill a job, my state agency and others within state government takes months.

    The benefits are great but the hiring process sucks.

  422. Peon1*

    It seems to depend on the industry.
    I see plenty of vacant positions for IT and healthcare, but none in my field. I’m in the museum and heritage sectors, and it’s as sparse as it’s always been. The rare vacancy is always low-paying and in an admin-type role.

  423. Chirpy*

    My current job is very understaffed and cannot find anyone to fill the jobs…however, they are not offering a living wage, let alone one that has any incentive to get into this “essential” field where customers definitely treat us as expendable punching bags, made 10x worse by the pandemic. I’ve worked here for years, and still do not make a living wage either. I don’t blame anyone for not filling these openings. Corporate of course thinks the money is more than reasonable given the job….it’s starting at a whole $12/hr but no landlord in this county will rent even a crappy old efficiency to you if you make less than $16.50…

    On a semi-related note, LinkedIn keeps giving me wildly inappropriate job listings from the different field I set the search for – occasionally volunteer opportunities that are technically in the field, but I’m looking for, you know, a paid job – but mostly completely unrelated things like surgeon or housekeeping or nursing that are neither the field I’m looking for nor related in the slightest in any way. So yeah, of course I’m not even applying to those.

    1. Chirpy*

      I should add, I currently work in retail. Trying to get out, but there’s almost no point in even looking at job listings without pay ranges because I can’t afford to take multiple days off work to interview for something that won’t pay enough to live on (a living wage here is at least $40k, median salary is closer to $60-70k, and I make around $25k…)

  424. Not involved in hiring*

    We’ve been fully staffed for maybe 1 of the last 24 months while volume has been exploding. Finally got the ok to add an additional person so now we always have 2 open reqs instead of 1.

    We keep getting bites, but I’m assuming we’re not offering competitive compensation since they often bail before they start (presumably for better offers). I am very happy to not be my supervisor these days.

  425. Little beans*

    I just hired for 2 positions in a usually popular field. Every time I’ve been on a hiring committee before, we’ve gotten anywhere from 80 to 200 applicants. This time, less than 10 for both positions. We got lucky and had one stellar candidate in each pool who is someone we would have hired normally based on their experience, but they had zero competition. Usually there is a second and third place candidate who are pretty good – this time around, we only had one finalist. Hearing very similar things from colleagues in my field (university student services), and seeing LOTS of job postings.

  426. Worthmore*

    I was just offered a state government job in the Midwest that advertised the salary range as $39K to $57K. In a low cost of living area, I can be comfortable at $50K and planned to ask for $55K. After they offered me the job, they told me that the absolute maximum they could pay was $42K. Yeah, no thank you. They didn’t seem to think that their posting was misleading in the least. Had I known what the actual salary was, I wouldn’t have applied.

    I don’t know when employers will figure out if they want to hire people, they actually have to pay them fairly.

  427. Daffodilly*

    Wanting to hire? Yep.
    Willing to pay competitive wages, offer remote work when possible, and have reasonable workloads? NOPE.

  428. Nacho*

    No experience job searching, but I got a 10% raise after 9 months on the job, and I’ve noticed we’re giving out significantly more and higher bonuses than we were a year ago. It could just be a coincidence/me being a high performer, but I think the job market might have something to do with the higher pay.

  429. SnowedIn*

    I’ve been job hunting for a year and it’s still as terrible as before. Granted I’m trying to get into a very highly desirable field (book publishing) so that’s always been the case…so nothing has changed on this front.

  430. A Wall*

    The word “qualified” is doing a lot of heavy lifting lately.

    I have seen so many companies start playing games with their policies and technicalities a lot. I keep getting form rejections for jobs I’m highly qualified for and where I was internally referred for, and HR gives really asinine reasons each time for how teeechnically I’m not. Like that I have 4.75 years experience and they wanted 5, or they only wanted 2 but I did the job at a company they didn’t think was as prestigious as theirs so it didn’t count. I’ve had a TON of “yeah you have this experience that we acknowledge is totally relevant and you are totally qualified, but per our policy we can’t count it as real and have to reject you as unqualified.” At one company I actually worked at two years ago I applied for an internal role, and they said I was not qualified for it because only the experience I had at their company counted, so all the work experience I had before I came there was dust that meant nothing to them. All of that is reasonable (or at least understandable) if they have a glut of applicants, but in all these cases the jobs are sitting open for months and months and few or no candidates are being found “qualified” by these policies. The hiring managers are quote-unquote desperate for candidates, but it’s not because no one is applying.

    Or I’ll get a job offer where they’re only offering the bottom of their pay range because they don’t think the additional 5 years experience I have in an adjacent job counts because the work is only 90% similar and not 100%, so they feel it’s only fair that they offer me entry-level pay when I’m well over a decade into this field at this point. Also, with every job offer I’ve had in recent years, they say they aren’t allowed to offer me more than a certain amount because their pay equity policy means all new hires have to come in on the low end, or not higher than x% of existing employees, or something like that. And in all these cases, the amount being offered is not enough to rent a 1br apartment in the city in question. It’s not the difference between decent money and better money, it’s the difference between being precariously situated or just barely stable. You just can’t offer me a precariously low salary while simultaneously saying that’s the only way it’s “equitable.” Bringing in more and more people at sub-living wages is not equitable no matter how evenly across the board you’ve managed to screw everyone.

    In almost every case this stuff is coming from HR, not the actual people I’d be working with. In most cases the hiring managers are openly frustrated and aggravated by how HR is screening people out or lowballing them or whatever the situation is. It’s just indiscriminate applications of big institutional policies that end up being really silly in practice.

    1. A Wall*

      Also may I add: It’s sure an interesting coincidence that every company’s “fair pay” policies mean they get to limit everyone to the lowest possible part of their pay grades. Interesting how it never means paying all employees a better living wage across the board. Almost as if it’s a smokescreen they’re blowing over top of garden variety exploitation. Funny.

  431. Jo*

    In my specific niche of my field, while my company isn’t hiring (this has economical reasons, we’re restructuring), I have been asked by several friends in other companies if I won’t consider joining them and have been getting an onslaught of recruiters contacting me on Linkedin. I don’t look at job ads right now, but the market is pretty empty for my specific profession, it’s definitely an employee’s market right now.

    I have also heard from an acquaintance who runs a “starter training” agency for my general field that people get jobs even before they even start the training.

    I’m not sure this is pandemic related or just natural fluctuation in my field specifically, though.

    What is pandemic related is that it’s essentially impossible to hire nurses right now, the market is basically empty and they can’t find anyone at all. This is information from a freelance gig I do for a big hospital.

  432. Stargazer*

    So, mixed blessings – I recently found a MUCH better position than I ever had before, full-time with decent benefits and above minimum wage with an established middle-size company . I didn’t even need a cover letter!

    On the downside, they’re more disorganized and had higher turnover than they indicated in the interviews. On the upside, that means higher job security for me AND they’re still far less of a disaster than my previous employers simply by virtue of being law-abiding, offering benefits, taking Covid seriously, having a break room, etc! But I do now realize how low my bar was set. And thanks to AAM, I feel like I’m not a total jerk for planning on giving them a year to see how it goes, and then looking around…

  433. Hapax Legomenon*

    I graduated in 2012 and have worked full-time since a month or two before graduation, apart from five weeks between jobs when I moved overseas. After ten years, I still have not been able to make $30k a year. I live in a location where my job options are limited, but I can’t even get a call about jobs that pay the same as I’m making now. I’ve pretty much given up on ever paying back my student loans, on having health insurance, on being able to retire before I die…and a lot of people around me are either in the same boat or only staying afloat because their VA disability is more than our paychecks.

  434. a developer*

    in my experience this is mostly from people who want to pay 9-11$/hr for roles that require a master’s or phd.

  435. Picket line or bread line*

    Nearly every single food and retail place in the city is hiring. The lack of uni students, domestic and international, has caused a huge shortage in these industries. However, in the not-for-profit/health industry is seems to be mixed. It took me nine-ish months of serious job hunting and interviewing to get a role. Luckily I was only unemployed for 3 of those months. I have about 5 years of experience and 2 degrees. I have an extremely coveted permanent role now. The sector is plagued with short term contracts, high turnover and wages that are barely keeping up with inflation, let alone the government and private sectors.
    A previous workplace is struggling to attract people and only just upped its salary range. In one of the most expensive cities in the world. And they don’t offer working from home at all. Those positions are going to take a while to fill!
    (For context I’m in Australia)

  436. Somerset*

    I work in a managerial position in Europe with an accounting background. I have had more recruiters reach out to me in the past 6-months than in the past 3-years. My observations are that:
    1) There are definitely more positions available for my level and background.
    2) The job requirements are insanely demanding. Employers want you know everything and to be everything. Reading the job descriptions are incredibly daunting; they are asking the job requirements of 3 roles to be done in a single role. I can’t begin to fathom how the job would work with a single person doing every responsibility listed, or how you could incentivize a good candidate to stick with that role beyond a correspondingly insanely high salary.
    3) To follow on from that, unfortunately I can’t really comment on salary, as the recruiters generally aren’t disclosing these. For the recruiter that did disclose the salary, it was a 21.5% pay increase compared to my current role.

    1. Somerset*

      To add on to point 3), I believe that I am underpaid in my role for this market, so the 21.5% increase should be viewed with this context.

  437. Alice*

    I’ve already posted this in previous comments, but my experience is that (at least in my area) the job market is good to seekers.

    I changed jobs in late 2019 and it was very difficult to find something. My search took the best part of the year, I sent tons of resumes, had so many interviews that went nowhere, and I pretty much ended up taking the first half-decent offer I got. At first I was happy just to have a different job, but it quickly turned out I’d made a really bad move. The job was very different from the description I’d been given, management was dysfunctional, my boss kept making sexist and homophobic remarks. Then, after just a few months of remote working during the pandemic, the company insisted we all returned to the office full time. That was a nightmare, they insisted they had safety protocols but they hadn’t, many people never bothered to mask at all nor would they respect distancing or the rules on max occupancy of meeting rooms. Another team had an outbreak when a manager came into work without testing even though his wife was positive. Then me and an office mate got sick, thankfully with bog standard flu, but it gave me quite a scare because I have vulnerable family members and this was well before any vaccine was available.

    So, in early 2021, I decided to bite the bullet and start job searching again. I was really disheartened and thinking it would take me another year, I used the same resume and everything, with just a minimal update regarding my then-current position, which was only marginally related to my career path thanks to the bait and switch I got. Right off the bat, I got many more interviews than before! It could be that companies were interviewing remotely and so they had more flexibility, I don’t know, but a couple of years ago I was lucky to get an interview every couple of weeks. Now I could get an interview every couple of days, and all for positions I was interested in. I got to be choosy and turned down second round interviews with companies that seemed like bad fits. In less than two months I got offers from two companies, took one, and now I’ve been in this job for half a year and I love it. I’m back to doing what I love, the people are great, and I’m fully remote.

    This is not just my personal experience. A friend who works in a different field was laid off during Covid, then she had to postpone the job search due to unrelated medical problems, and she was concerned about her options after being out of work for over a year. However she recently got a new job, in her field, with a nice pay bump. Might be just the situation in our area (Covid shook things up quite a bit) but for the first time in a decade the job market looks good.

  438. Mia*

    Yes, this is definitely the case for my company. However, I think it’s important to keep in mind that it doesn’t mean we’re willing to hire just anyone. Most of the candidates getting ignored are applying for positions that they aren’t a good fit for- either they are way overqualified and we don’t want to hire someone who will quit in boredom after a few months, or they simply don’t have the skills or experience we need. We might not be able to hire our typical “ideal” candidate due to how competitive the market is, and we are definitely paying higher salaries across the board; but there is still a certain base level of skills/experience needed for the positions we’re hiring for. I think sometimes people take a competitive market to mean they can get almost any job but that’s just not how it works. It doesn’t do us any good to hire someone who can’t do the job.

  439. Somewhere in Texas*

    I’ve been applying sporadically to jobs that fit my hyper-specific skill set and preferences. I’m not getting calls or interviews, so I can infer a few things from that.
    1. Not applying to enough positions to get into the groove of applying.
    2. There are a lot of people applying for this small segment of jobs.
    3. I could just be a so/so candidate compared to others.

    All to say, I’m applying, but it’s not an easy job market for me.

  440. Beachlife*

    I am currently trying to fill a position on my team. We are a not for profit organization in healthcare, so the pay isn’t outstanding, but it is beyond the $15 minimum that our state is moving toward. The position is in a warehouse and does not require a degree, although decent computer/Excel skills are needed, along with some knowledge of inventory.

    I have had zero luck. Out of 21 applicants so far, 14 did not include resumes or even complete the application questions. There were 5 who did include resumes of varying quality, but did not have anything close to the needed skill set. We interviewed one decent candidate but he went in another direction, and I tried to interview another who no showed.

    I promise the pay or work conditions are not horrible and I am not being overly picky. I’m willing to train someone who has some basic skills and a good attitude. We just can’t find anyone wanting this type of work/qualified right now. And that holds true for other positions here, from entry level order fillers to Executive Director level roles.

  441. Islandgal*

    I work for a large healthcare provider, have an masters degree, and have applied to 75 positions within the company, have only had two interviews. My resume looks good, I’ve had people comment on how great it looks. Can barely get an interview, even for an entry level position. Applying for analyst, associate project manager positions, got nothing. :(

  442. Skippy*

    I was laid off from my arts job in late 2019, and I’ve been looking for full-time work ever since. My industry was completely devastated by the pandemic, with thousands of layoffs, and they only started seriously rehiring this fall, so after a very dire year and a half I’m finally seeing more and more positions posted every week. The positions themselves are variable: some places have definitely increased their pay and benefits and reassessed what they are asking for in return, but many other places are still looking for unicorns with advanced degrees to work terrible hours for less-than-market rate salaries. The latter seem to be having a harder time, though, as the jobs tend to be reposted after they don’t find their unicorn, or that unicorn leaves after a short time for something better.

    However, hiring practices across the field haven’t changed one bit. Everyone is moving at a glacial pace, which hasn’t changed since pre-pandemic times: they’re still doing multiple rounds of interviews spread out over weeks and months, even as the rest of the world has picked up the hiring pace considerably and I’m sure they lose good candidates to their interminable process. This is also the first time in my 15-year career that I’ve scheduled and confirmed interviews, but the interviewer never joins the Zoom call, with no email to let me know they couldn’t make it. None of this seems to signal any sort of eagerness to hire, despite the fact that they don’t have enough people to meet the demand for their programs.

    As for me personally, I have an excellent resume, I have a solid track record in my field and tons of relevant experience, and I can write a good cover letter, so I get a fair number of interviews, but I still haven’t received any reasonable offers yet. I turned down a couple of not-so-great offers in 2021, as I’m doing fine with my two part-time jobs, but I’m hoping that something full-time will come through soon.

  443. CS*

    I will speak specifically for retail banking and the hotel industries in Front Range Colorado: we’re still hiring and short of *qualified* employees, but compared with last summer, the need has definitely slowed down.

    I know it’s more complicated than a comment on a blog post would justify, but my theory from my perspective (and again, *my* theory and *my* perspective) is that people started thinking about what they’d do when the federal unemployment benefits would run out, and at the same time, employers realized they needed to pay more and actually did, so that there was a match in expectations on both sides. As a result, we mostly got and retained the qualified employees we needed instead of needing the salaried managers to work 60 hours a week covering the front line staff shortage.

    Then again, I could be completely wrong.

  444. Marie*

    I’m a clinical social worker. We have two levels of licensure, one that designates you as still in training, and one that allows you to practice and bill independently without a supervisor. About a decade ago, our state changed the laws to make it easier for agencies to hire those in training, because otherwise they couldn’t, you know, train. But by and large, agencies don’t hire trainees (which means they finish their training hours and are allowed to become therapists sometimes having never done a day of therapy).

    Now, I’m seeing a reversal. Clinical workers are demanding higher pay, better support, PTO we’re allowed to actually use, reasonable caseloads, some control over our schedules, physical safety at work, etc. The offers for clinical workers are pitifully low, but suddenly agencies are changing their job descriptions to allow trainees and trying to hire them by the droves. Licensed workers are either exiting to go into private practice or private therapy mills (and thus losing PSLF eligibility), staying in underpaid jobs while burned out and underperforming, or just exiting social work entirely.

    This would be a good time for some social service unions! Quite a few agencies in my area have been having union drives, which was something that used to be unimaginable.

  445. Peregrine*

    I’m working at a skilled manufacturing shop now, and we’ve been desperate for people since before Covid. We need welders so badly we reopened our entry level welding pipeline in hopes of getting enough warm bodies to get product out the door less than a year late. Depending on which site, our salary is usually on par with or higher than local average — one site is an exception, which our recruiter is fighting for a change to in the next union contract— with great benefits. Meanwhile, our recruiters are cold contacting anyone with welding, machining, and QA experience they can find who would be willing to relo. Of course, our company is also requiring the vaccine for new hires, which we’ve had a shocking amount of people turn down offers and interviews because of…

  446. Transit Person*

    My industry – public transit – is actively looking to hire.
    We’ve increased wages. We’ve improved the shifts. We provide good benefits (medical, dental, pension). We’ve tried to simplify the hiring process.
    You do not need to have a commercial license. We will provide paid training.
    You need a clean driving record and a willingness to work with the public. (For COVID, we require masks and there are plastic barriers between riders and drivers.)
    You get to make a difference in the community.
    YOU can be the reason a low-income or disabled person is able to get to work.
    YOU can be the reason an older person is able to visit their friends, go to the grocery store and get to the doctor.
    YOU can be the reason that a student is able to get to school or to college.

    1. Transit person again*

      I forgot to add that a lot of people work in transit as a way to support their passion projects or other businesses. (e.g. Do art on the weekends. Volunteer for veterans group. Run a contracting business.)

  447. Txag18*

    I’m a recent grad looking for a job in construction management. The few open “entry level” positions I’ve seen still ask for 3+ years industry experience. I have seen quite a few of the next level positions open but those ask for 5-8+ years of experience. It feels like a lot of companies in my industry are hiring, but no one wants to take a chance on a new grad and training them up.

  448. Another Commenter*

    I quit my old employer in her retail sector a number of years ago after getting a job with my current employer. Not only was the salary considerably more, I also no longer have to do shift work and I’m not constantly having my shifts changed.

    My old employer is now so desperate for employees, they asked me to come back on a full time basis; however, the hourly pay is now less than half of what I make, I wouldn’t qualify for benefits until 6 months, and rather than guarantee me 40 hours per week it was implied I would be on call 7 days a week. They also told me coming back part time wasn’t an option and that this offer was contingent on quitting my current job.

    They seemed so shocked I said no?

  449. Hakky Chan*

    I started a job search on November 28th. I applied for 48 positions in the space of a week (I was really motivated to make a change, and these positions all passed my preliminary research before I even bothered to apply). I’ve heard back positively from 12 of those 48 positions and had interviews, and heard back from an additional 6 saying they would not be moving me forward.

    I start my new role January 17th. I’m an EA in the Toronto, Canada area and there are tons of roles out there right.

    My current employer is in health care, and I’m sure you can already imagine the struggles they are having keeping people right now.

  450. Lemon Ginger Tea*

    I had an interview earlier this week and the interviewer mentioned that she’d had a number of no-shows and was worried that I’d also be a no-show, since we scheduled it before the holidays. I guess that’s an indicator that job seekers are more in-demand and less desperate these days.

  451. middle name danger*

    I think I’m running into a lot of issues where automated systems reject my application for not meeting one of the many requirements even though I’m otherwise a strong candidate. They want 3 years experience with a specific system, I have 2, or I have 3 on a very similar but competing system. The job listing says bachelor’s or equivalent experience, but if you don’t have a bachelor’s, a live human never sees your application. I’ve gotten way more replies from job listings at small companies where I email a person my resume directly. I’m actively job hunting but I’m being picky about what interviews I accept and I’m trying to avoid postings that don’t include a salary.

    So, it seems like there’s not enough people to hire because candidates are either getting rejected because of tight parameters and increasingly niche experience expected, and/or companies are giving people lowball offers. Also, a lot of jobs expect you to work outside of business hours and employees are getting less tolerant of that.

  452. Long time reader, First time caller*

    With all the frenzy with people hopping jobs for remote work plus larger salaries, I’ve been casually applying for the past 3 or so months, trying to pivot from a technical role (cannot be done remote) to a project management role (remote hopefully)- so far absolutely crickets.

    I don’t really buy the whole starving for applicants thing except for those shitty customer service jobs- fast food, grocery stores, restaurants, etc. It seems like those populations of people have definitely changed faster than the industries were able to adjust. I also think there is a lot of hang wringing going on by the businesses themselves, it is really only good for the business if they can get away with the public thinking they are starving for labor- increased costs, wait times, daily hours, etc are all explained away too conveniently if the employers get to bemoan the labor shortage as much as they are.

  453. Laney Boggs*

    I sent out applications (never without a tailored cover letter) ALL YEAR last year. At least 3 a week, every week, and sometimes 10 or 12 when I got in a groove.

    I had 4 interviews
    2 led to second interviews
    &1 offer at, yes, a laughably low salary (literally below the “living wage” for the area they wanted me to move to, and not 3x any of the 1bdr apartments in the area!)

    So I am skeptical of how easy the job search is!

  454. Hacker For Hire*

    I am in the IT field, based in Europe, and looking for a job. So far job opportunities have been scarce. The vast majority of them come from consulting companies looking for the rockstar and offering peanuts.

  455. Aidan*

    I and many people i have talked to in my industry (museums/zoos/etc) have not seen a positive impact. I have seen no noticeable improvement in my application to interview rate and have been rejected by every job I’ve applied to in the last two years.

  456. mockingbird2081*

    I am a manager in healthcare. In the past if we were looking for Medical Assistants, nurses or receptionist we would post the position and within a week we would have 30 or so applicants with the right qualifications. Now we post those jobs and we can wait 5-10 weeks before we even get 1 applicant and they are usually not qualified (they don’t have the education/certification required). It is frustrating. We are trying to find ways to be more efficient with the staff we have but it is tough, healthcare workers are being asked to do more and more and it is hard to do so without the proper staffing without risk of burn out. We have raised our hourly rate as much as we can but where other industries can raise their prices to offset raised salaries healthcare can’t do that as prices are set by insurance plans and it can take years to change.

  458. Oof*

    From my perspective the job market is full of lies. I’ve never seen more unemployed people actively looking for work and employers are offering the worst compensation packages I’ve ever seen. If the pay isn’t enough to secure a mortgage, save for retirement, pay for medical needs, and pay off student loans the job is being viewed as shackles to poverty rather than, you know, a job. Nobody is inclined to work very hard to be poor when you can *not* work hard and be just as poor. There is no incentive.

    1. Marie*

      I feel this SO hard. There are a lot of jobs and career fields that seem to generate debt instead of income.

  459. Pom Pom*

    My company is hiring hiring hiring. We have senior roles, we have intro roles, we have admin roles. I personally have had 3 positions posted for over 3 months. Usually we get about 10 applicants, I have had an average of 2 applicants for each role (with one line cover letters and nothing on the resume). Of course, I’m in a state industry and I’m trying to up the salary for my roles, but I’m at the middle of the totem pole and our salaries are somewhat state legislated so I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. :\ I keep having people email ME about switching to THEIR department’s senior role- that they can’t fill. But I know that if I leave it will just create a vacuum in my dept, which is also trying to fill 2 other similar senior roles…. it’s a big mess.

  460. AB*

    Have been job hunting for over a year, but housing is the real barrier to taking any other job. None of the jobs I qualify for, with a Bachelor’s, pay enough to afford housing. I am stuck.

  461. Not Identifiable*

    Reporting from rural Wisconsin, USA

    I have a Master’s Degree and work a governmental position in Natural Resources. I have worked in person with limited telework throughout the pandemic. Pandemic response in the physical workplace left a lot to be desired. We have seen a lot of retirements and movement in what historically was a very stable and competitive field. Replacing those leaving is an absolute nightmare with our HR. Those of us left all feel the pinch with workload. I was curious and looked around and have found far more openings in my competitive field than usual including decent to well-paying opportunities. I like the stability of my job and still have more to learn here before it’s pure paper-pushing options so I’ll be here a while.

    My spouse does not have a college degree and works with animals; they have about 10 years of animal care experience at this point. In May they made a pivot from government to a biotech company. Their salary is now double what they were making a year ago (with more hours and responsibility, but still) with BETTER benefits. The company has had spotless COVID response despite needing to work in person and they are RAPIDLY expanding. Hiring has been a real challenge but they have given sign-on and recruitment bonuses and the compensation is very generous for the area. We’ve both been working our networks hard to recruit for them with the goal of getting my partner home more.

  462. Tracey*

    My husband (lab scientist) and I (social worker) have benefitted from the more robust job market. He set his LinkedIn to “looking” and a fair number of recruiters hit him up. One of them ultimately led to him accepting a job offer that is taking us to the opposite coast. I hit the pavement looking for jobs in New City as soon as I realized we were moving, and I have never gotten so many calls back any other time I’ve applied for a job. We haven’t landed in New City yet, but I’ve actually already got something lined up. Now, this is my first time on the job hunt since getting my MSW, so it’s possible MSWs are just REALLY in demand in New City and this would have been my experience any year. But my husband being aggressively recruited is new.

  463. Julia*

    Two Ivy degrees, five years of experience, impeccable resume, references, constant praise on my interviewing…and I’m at 24 months of applying (hundreds of applications) and not getting the job. On several occasions, lost out to people with significantly less education AND experience. It’s not that I’m asking for too much money, because I never even get the chance to.

  464. DJ Abbott*

    So Alison, this follows from my conversation with Wintermute, who kindly suggested some insurance companies I might look at.
    I looked at the Kemper site just now for the corporate headquarters location and saw the same kind of things commenters have been saying. Most of the jobs are for management, Director, or VPs. Most of the remaining ones are senior this or that like senior accountant, senior analyst.
    There are four customer service jobs listed, all of them managers or seniors. I suppose they have their regular customer service people based in some other location. There are a couple of entry level jobs that require specific specialized experience and degrees.
    I didn’t look at their Students category because I’m not a student and they wouldn’t consider me for those.

    1. Hillary*

      This doesn’t entirely surprise me for two reasons. One – a huge push right now is replacing folks who are retiring, especially in January because many people choose to retire in December. Once the replacement promotions cycle through we’ll see postings ~Q2 for the next level down, then entry level ideally coincides with graduation season.

      Two – roles like entry level customer service are often filled through staffing services, especially if you see manager/supervisor jobs posted in that city (no supervisor postings = they’re somewhere else). Right now according to my employer’s website we have 7 postings for no-experience, no-education roles (literally – the qualifications are able to read, reliably show up on time not drunk and not high, and get along well enough with your coworkers to not have active fights start). We have at least 40 openings associated with those postings and mostly fill them through staffing services. The postings are basically on our websites for employees to do referrals and for walk in applicants to fill out. The employees we’re hiring don’t always have reliable internet access outside work and don’t tend to apply online. We have employee non-work wifi for their phones and terminals for them to use for document access etc.

      2. Coco*

        We tend to hire our temporary employees. We recently posted an admin position that garnered exactly three resumes. Two were from people in different regions of the country with no experience and one was for an admin seeking $120-140k a year. Luckily our temp employee in the position was excellent and we were able to convert her to FTE. The referral fee was over $10k but she is very good. Please don’t quote

  465. Tumbleweed*

    (I’m in the UK and my industry is quite structured at early stages – undergrad degree, 1(+) year of work, masters degree, some more work, professional qualification)

    Everyone in my industry is trying to hire at ‘mid-level’ (in this context professional qualification + 2-4 years). Most people in the bracket they are looking for aren’t wanting to move, no one seems to be offering a salary that would make someone who didn’t already want to change jobs decide to leave a secure job they already know the pros and cons of. The salary thing is essentially part of a larger issue with low fees that mean raising salaries at this level very quickly catches the next people up etc. The pandemic is having an effect on projects where they are essentially being greenlit one stage at a time, so I think future planning is pretty tricky (even if they can afford it right now).

    I am a year and a bit post the masters part of the pipeline and have recently got a new job…this was interesting. I think I have benefitted from essentially some downwards pressure from not being able to hire at the level people want to (and only just). I had several ‘they liked you but they have decided to research at higher level’ interactions during job search. The company I now work at were looking for someone 2-3 years post-masters and we’re trying to hire for 2 positions (they’ve only hired me).

    I have been very fortunate with managing to gain not only any experience at all (after 2020 graduation) but really really good experience -for what everyone is looking for at least- over the past year. People who graduated with me but haven’t got experience since (and even a lot who have) are struggling to get positions – I am the exception not the rule and places just flat out weren’t hiring when we graduated. People graduating this summer seem to (imo) have a slightly easier time of it overall but still struggling to get positions, cause easier than graduating into month five of a pandemic in not a very high bar. It’s worth noting I graduated ‘top of my class’ with nominations for industry awards etc. And I changed jobs because of the incredibly insecure contracts/continuing job prospects at my previously employer (there were also some dodgy employment practices mostly of the ‘small business owner doesn’t know what the law is’ kind of variety, and underpaying even by the industries already terrible standards related to amount of work people actually do) – I overall enjoyed working there, worked on some great stuff…but these factors are why I moved on once I had other options. (You shouldn’t actually need to have done this well in school to get an insecure job paying 20% below median market rate…is basically my point here)

  466. StudentA*

    The trouble with this question is that answers are going to vary wildly among fields and locations. There are industries with dire needs for talent. Then there are others where workers are willing to practically work for free to break in, yes, even in this job market. I’ve worked in several fields and it’s really difficult on the soul to be in such a competitive field hearing about a so-called employee’s market. I don’t believe that’s the case, our society is not there and our thinking is too competitive and capitalist to hand over the power to the people.

  467. PNW CNA*

    I’ve worked part-time as a Certified Nursing Assistant for the past few years and I was feeling like I could do something to help the local hospitals so I applied for ~8 CNA jobs. I was rejected by half and the rest didn’t reply. This is with prior experience, up to date on certifications, etc. They have weekly hiring events so there is clearly a demand. At the same time, I could apply to literally any nursing home, assisted living facility, home care agency and be hired the same day (this has happened to me twice). Just a strange situation to be in since hospitals are clearly understaffed and overwhelmed but my applications aren’t going anywhere.

  468. Dan*

    I used to work at a casino as a blackjack dealer. Made good money, loved my job. We had cocktail waitresses circling the floor to bring people drinks. They worked almost entirely for tips.

    Guests would complain that the cocktails never came their way. One day a Player Retention manager got an earful about this near me. He turned to me as the player wandered away and remarked, “Some people just don’t care giving good customer service.” I ended up shouting at him across the table about how if the casino doesn’t pay more than taxes, and the player is a known stiffer, the cocktails aren’t going to come within a mile of him and good for them.

    This same attitude spread through that casino, and they’re barely treading water. Only one out of their four food outlets are open at any one time. The current speculation is that the GM is deliberately trying to bankrupt the casino because he belongs to a different tribe.

    Pretty sad stuff to watch.

  469. Dry January Sucks*

    I’m in secondary education. We are desperate. If you have a bachelor’s degree, a reasonable amount of skill at something academic, a high tolerance for BS, and no felonies, you are in.

  470. Byte wrangler*

    I’m in tech, in a specialty where I’m getting hit on LinkedIn every week. I started a job search in September, and I’m just now (in January) getting responses from some places I applied to in September and early November, and have gotten a couple of rather snippy emails from a couple of recruiters when I let them know I’m off the market again.

    For contrast, the job I ended up taking took 12 business days from first contact to me accepting their offer.

    There’s one cohort of companies that realize they need to move fast and pay reasonably, and there’s a much larger one that thinks people have no choice but to put up with whatever crumbs they offer and should be glad for the chance.

  471. I Just Want A Job*

    Every great job I see is ‘temp to hire,’ and I can’t do that. I’m a single parent with a master’s degree and a good resume, but taking a temp to hire means my kids and I instantly lose my state-subsidized health insurance. It’s a huge risk to go 6 months with no insurance and no guarantee of a job with benefits at the end of it.

    Temp to hire makes employers look so shady, like they want to cheap out on paying benefits and going this route saves them 6 months per employee. And it makes them look like they don’t have the skill to complete the hiring process, or the ability to make decisions. And so many employers use temp to hire as a bait and switch, getting excellent people in the door then never completing the hire, stringing them along for months then letting them go and replacing them with another temp to never-hired person.

    Temp to hire is so classist, because it assumes you have a partner whose benefits cover you, and who can afford to support your family while you do your months-long extended interview of a job, hoping to be hired.

  472. Marketing Middle Manager*

    I believe this is a good job market specifically for people with “traditional”/”expected” career paths and mid-level experience in their field. As Cthulu’s Librarian said above, I think there are certain pockets where the Great Resignation news is prompting a lot of these types of people to look for jobs. And they’re getting snapped up.

    But personally, I work in marketing and I would say my resume is moderate. I have solid experience, but not in any of the subniches that are super hot right now. About a year ago, I would get emails from recruiters every few weeks. But a few months ago, they stopped entirely. This is a sign to me that a lot of other people in my field are looking for jobs.

    Now, I’m actively job searching in an adjacent field that is a little bit of a career change (from demand gen to product marketing). And it is rough. When I apply for jobs in my current field, I get interviews about half the time. But I’ve applied for two dozen jobs in the new field with no response.

    And the job descriptions are a bit ridiculous. It’s a non-technical role that relies heavily on soft skills. But the job descriptions are demanding X years of experience doing specific parts of the job–and one of them included the word “non-negotiable.” Absurd.

    All of which aligns with my impression that both my old field and my new field are seeing a hot market for traditional candidates, but those of us with less obvious career paths may be having a harder time. I’m curious to see how it evolves over the next few months–will “nontraditional” candidates suddenly see a hot market after all the “traditional” candidates get their new jobs and hunker down for a year or two?

  473. hiringmanager101*

    I work at a well-respected nationwide nonprofit organization. Salaries are not super high especially to start at entry level, but we have excellent benefits and are very flexible (and everyone is pretty much working from home right now).

    I’ve been at this org for a while but I am a new manager, which means I am now part of the hiring committee. My team is probably one of the most sought-after roles or positions in our organization – it’s the kind of role you could use to really pad your resume. So we had a posting up for a couple weeks and got hundreds of applicants. Just to put that into perspective, there were more applicants than there are current employees in the entire organization!

    It is very eye-opening to be on the other side of the table as a hiring manager not an applicant. Here are some things I’ve noticed that will hopefully be helpful to job seekers.

    Cover letters! I know this has been discussed on AAM many times. If you are applying to a competitive role in industry, or a nonprofit with a specific mission and vision especially – I want to know why you want to work HERE. We asked for cover letters specifically for that reason, and many people didn’t provide one or they just wrote 2-3 sentences in that space on the application. Of the people who did provide cover letters, I saw less than 5 that were truly excellent by AAM standards. Most were just repeating what was on the resume. Please do not do this. The cover letter is your chance to make a first impression on a hiring manager and make them want to read your resume and probably interview you. Don’t waste that chance! Then about 20% of the cover letters were so horrendous I couldn’t even get through them. Pages of rambling nonsense, talking about completely unrelated hobbies or volunteer activities you did 15 years ago…why?

    We required applicants to answer a few questions before they submitted their resume/application. This is not done to waste your time, it’s being used as a weed-out. The questions were highly relevant to the job, like “Are you interested in working with lions and tigers?” And “Name the specific lion/tiger training techniques in which you are proficient?” This is because we need people who are proficient in at least one lion/tiger training technique or we’re not interested in hiring them. So…first of all, please don’t lie because that’s not going to work out well for you. And if you can’t be bothered to write more than 3-4 word answers, that doesn’t look good either. Many people gave us quite thoughtful responses, so you’re not going to stack up to those candidates.

    I was shocked that about 85% of the resumes listed tasks instead of accomplishments. Perhaps my view is skewed as a loyal AAM reader, but I thought it was common knowledge in this day and age. The people applying to this position were highly educated! Even worse, some people submitted resumes that literally just listed the positions they’ve held along with their degree/credentials. No responsibilities, tasks, or anything else. Just a list! My suspicion is that they are trying to apply to as many positions as possible using one resume. I wish people wouldn’t do this, it’s a waste of everyone’s time. So if you are currently job searching, just listing accomplishments instead of tasks in your resume should put you in the top candidates list.

    I do not care about your resume formatting as long as it’s neat and organized. Please do not use an Olde English type of font or any neon colors – I can’t believe I have to say that. But even having a nice-looking stylized resume with colors is not going to help you stand out because I am looking for content, not style. Unless you’re in some kind of graphic design field or something, feel free to ignore that advice.

    If you have a cover letter, you don’t need a “profile” section at the top of your resume, there are better ways to use that space.

    Basic proof-reading, do not misspell the organization’s name multiple times in your cover letter (!!), do not mention wanting to move back to the North Pole because your heart is in the North Pole, my organization is not – and it’s obvious you recycled this from another application.

    Please, please, please do NOT put your zodiac sign or any type of “personality type” on your resume. It does not belong there, and it’s weird.

    This might be especially relevant if you are applying to a highly technical position like lion/tiger training, but I think it’s still good advice for everyone. Do not tell me you are highly proficient in lion cognitive behavioral therapy in your cover letter if you can’t show that on your resume. If you’re highly proficient in something that is extremely job-related, you should be able to work that into your tasks/accomplishments otherwise it seems a little suspicious. If you are actually highly proficient and it’s because you grew up in a circus and you didn’t learn it in a professional context, you should probably make that clear in your cover letter so it doesn’t seem like you’re pulling skills out of thin air or being dishonest in some way.

    For those of you trying to break into a different career field – I feel for you. We don’t have an “automatic” rejection mechanism or algorithm but a lot of companies do. My advice would be to take online courses (Coursera/EdX, etc), and get certifications in your intended area, especially if it’s something more technical. Try to get any work experience you possibly can in that area, even if it’s volunteer work, creating an online profile or blog to showcase what you can do, etc. This actually does go a long way, especially for entry-level positions. I would much rather hire someone who is passionate about tiger training and can show me in their application materials how they’ve worked to gain those skills on their own, than someone who has a degree in the history of tigers and may or may not have the actual real world skills that I need.

    1. Hiringmanager101*

      I should have mentioned as well that many of the people we got were over-qualified and had significantly more education and work experience than we required for these positions.

  474. KP*

    My mom is a younger boomer and due to life circumstances hasn’t been working for a few years now. She was running out of money and needs full time work, so she decided to go to a staffing agency and try to get a temp-to-hire position as an office manager or receptionist or something. Now, she has held a number of different jobs over the years, but none that would be really “white collar” or require an advanced degree or anything. So she has a lot of life experience but not specific industry experience.

    She also has an associate’s degree in behavioral health, which is of course not going to get you a job as a counselor or therapist — but the staffing agency put her up for a receptionist job at a behavioral health clinic! She was subsequently disappointed because they rejected her, apparently because she “didn’t have enough office experience”. Come to find out that she DOES have office experience, she just didn’t put it on her resume (huge eye roll). The staffing agency told her they could “discuss costs” with her to set her up with someone who can improve her resume. Meanwhile they are putting her up for jobs that pay like $16/hr lol.. I was like GTFO with that bullshit! So of course I took her resume and fixed it all up, and she got a job offer less than 48 hours after she gave the agency her new resume. Not at the behavioral health place, but it’s at a big hospital system that will have good benefits and stable working environment when she gets hired on full time.

    One thing I did right away was take the years off her education section. It is very true that older people are being discriminated against, ESPECIALLY older women, and it kind of terrifies me for the future! Thankfully I have a specialized and technical skill set that should serve me well, but my mom is really smart and willing to do entry-level work with no real expectations of “moving up” or anything like that, she just wants to be paid fairly and she’ll keep her head down, do the work, and not cause any drama. You’d think a lot of these businesses would love to have someone like that.

  475. MJ*

    Few days late but hey.

    I worked for 15 years in a clinical role in a hospital, and I am now making more money per hour by taking tickets at the local amusement park. They ask me to come fill in for a few hours and I point out that I could work OT at my current job for nearly twice what they’d pay m e, so why would i bother?

    That was months ago. They’re now paying 100% incentive rates to employees who show up, but haven’t adjusted their hiring/base rate.

    Yet.

  476. Livin' the life*

    I retired this past summer from my biological/environmental job, with 32 years of experience. When my position was posted internally (in a company of 4,500), there were no applicants, which was not too surprising as environmental is a niche within the company, although there’s usually a couple of internal applicants for this type job.

    When the position was opened to the public, they got a total of three applications. Typically they get 25-40 applications. Of the three applications, all had minimal experience, so they reposted the position on a variety of websites, including some science sites. They got one additional applicant. Then ended up going with a person who has a couple years experience, and they were hoping for a senior level applicant with 10+ years. I don’t think the pay was an issue, the company is known for golden handcuffs. Word of mouth in this field is there’s a lot more job hopping and people requesting WFH.

  477. CB*

    The market definitely feels hot in my field – I’d been hemming and hawing about leaving my old job for a while and finally decided to commit and start interviewing. I had 3 offers within 10 days of submitting resumes and got a 40% raise for the exact same job title at a new company.

  478. Libra*

    I’m a project manager – tons of jobs in my field and I am getting contacted by recruiters left and right. There is also a ton of competition. I am looking to make a change and have been on about a dozen interviews with two offers. I am asking for the biggest salary of my life and 100% remote work – we could not come to terms in either case, so I left the offers on the table. I figure I won’t get a market like this again any time soon, so I want what I want, and I am not stopping until I get it. Or until the market cools a bit and I have to reevaluate. I don’t hate my job, so if I have to stay a while longer, I can do that.

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