Why is it that a lot of businesses are hiring but a lot of people are struggling to find a job?

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Express_Leading_4840@reddit

Making sure that if you cam follow up on applications. I think that is one area people don't understand.

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I see in my local area people put applications in but don't make the effort to contact employers back. If you know the company you applied to you should make an effort after about 5 days to contact them and ask them about your application.

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TechKnight25@reddit

How do you do this when all you get are email from no-reply inboxes?

Reaching out to a recruiter on LinkedIn? They will ghost you.

I don't think it's with kids though, kinda like half days for the whole summer, lol, go in and feed animals, cleanup, do greenhouse stuff, etc.

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Latter_Leopard8439@reddit

Skill-job-location mismatched.

That fast food joint is desperate for workers, but employee is looking for a well paying engineering job.

Boston needs more Biotech workers, but the biology major in Minnesota is unwilling to move to Boston or work Alaskan Fisheries.

Airplane companies need people with Autocad design skills, but Jo Schmo barely graduated HS and chose not to take the manufacturing/engineering classes available at the HS because he couldn't get through Algebra I after 3 tries because "when are we ever going to use this triangle stuff" not understanding that Pythagoras sines and triangles are pretty important in solid engineering designs.

In short, the right employee doesn't have the right skills or isn't in the right state/country/county or both.

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itthumyir@reddit

For me personally, it's because all of the jobs that would hire someone of my qualifications pay disproportionately low wages that I'm not willing to work for unless I truly cannot find anything else.

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MiketheTzar@reddit

The work from home boom in the pandemic messed with a lot of people's heads. Taking a major pay cut for a job that is going to require you to actually do more work doesn't sit well with a lot of people even though that adjustment is closer to where they really should be in with their skill level.

I'd also say that most of the job postings I see are for service industry stuff and a lot of people got used to White collar hours and don't want to go back.

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TooManyDraculas@reddit

Taking a major pay cut for a job that is going to require you to actually do more work

Who would ever do that?

If you're making $X now then you're worth $X.

If the expectation is people should change jobs and work harder to do worse. Than that expectation need a serious fucking check.

and don't want to go back.

Who would want to?

You see a lot service industry stuff because it's a high turn over industry. It always has been, and it always will be.

Because it's pretty brutal and low paid work. That comes with no benefits, time off etc. As a rule people who can get better work, get better work.

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MiketheTzar@reddit

Who would ever do that?

Desperate people. Have you never seen a teen movie where a parent is unemployed or under employed. Pride doesn't pay bills and while it was nice for a while the train has left the station.

If you're making $X now then you're worth $X.

Your worth what you can negotiate and if you were worth 80k as a recruiter for a tech company than you might not be worth 90k as an administrative assistant. Supply and demand.

Who would want to?

Exactly, but you have some people who outright don't have a skill set that lends to office work. The service industry is a high intensity soft skill space that fits people like this like a glove

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TooManyDraculas@reddit

You talked about people who already have jobs making more than what was listed.

That's not a desperate person who needs any job you can get.

People who already have jobs aren't going to take worse jobs. Particularly some one who's under employed, or making too little.

They'll stay in their existing jobs, and continue to seek jobs that pay better. Or come with some other improvement.

If you make $80k as a recruiter in tech you're not going to take a $60k a year administrative assistant job. You probably wouldn't even take an $80k a year admin job.

Exactly, but you have some people who outright don't have a skill set that lends to office work. The service industry is a high intensity soft skill space that fits people like this like a glove

And yet you talked about people who left the industry for other work.

Which let me tell. People tend not go back to the much worse and lower paying restaurant work if they can avoid it.

Very few people actually stay in that industry long term. It's not a nice place to be.

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MiketheTzar@reddit

You talked about people who already have jobs making more than what was listed.

Layoffs are a thing.

Very few people actually stay in that industry long term. It's not a nice place

I'm aware. I have done my time on a cooking line, but it's always been my go to side hustle whenever things get a bit tight. Pragmatism beats prayer.

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TooManyDraculas@reddit

Layoffs are a thing.

Then that's an unemployed person.

Not a person who is for some reason considering a pay cut for a similar job to the one they have.

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Twixxdaweedguru@reddit (OP)

I think I might be dealing with this

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Muderous_Teapot548@reddit

On the flip side of that, from a hiring perspective, all the people I'm interviewing want to be paid more than their experience is worth, especially for the location. The company I work for pays better than fair and has really good benefits. It's like someone just out of high school wants to make 50/hr for a job that SHOULD pay 15/hr and IS paying 20/hr. (example, not exact numbers)

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Lorathis@reddit

Have you actually run comps?

In my area Target starts at $18/hour. Other similar positions available with other companies.

Then when I was job searching, with 10 years in digital marketing, some companies wanted to offer me like $45k positions which is like $22/hour.

That's absolutely bat-shit insane to offer someone with 10 years experience in a field only $4 more per hour than a no experience required retail store.

Then they still think they are "totally competitive."

I didn't take any of those jobs.

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HoarderCollector@reddit

While true, Target is a Billion Dollar company, they can actually AFFORD to pay their employees more.

Of course, the reason why they're a billion dollar company is because they could offer their positions at minimum wage and no one would bat an eyelash because it's a job that requires no special skills.

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hysys_whisperer@reddit

What an employer can afford has zero bearing on what a going wage is.

If you can't afford to pay going wages, then you deserve to go out of business, with everything that means. Loss of income, getting foreclosed on, etc.

That is literally the "risk" you are assuming when you are a business owner that those particular business owners always rant about when trying to justify taking an insane wage from a struggling business.

If you make more than 0 dollars for 100 hours a week of work in a bad year as a business owner, and your business goes under, you have nobody to blame but yourself. You signed up to work 100 hours a week for zero income in a bad year when you became a business owner.

When that time comes, they're never prepared to actually do what they said they were getting paid more for in the good years.

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HoarderCollector@reddit

I'm not defending businesses who pay less, I'm saying that billion dollar companies can afford to pay employees whatever they want.

If Billon Dollar companies all started paying $30-40 an hour, a lot more people would work there and put those smaller companies out if business. Then what happens when those smaller companies go out of business? Those billion dollar companies can lower their hiring wage and fire most of their staff after the new batch is trained.

What you get paid should be based on how important the job is, how difficult the job is, and how much the company can afford.

If you work for a company that ships a lot of things, then shipping is important, and you should be paid more because of its importance. Regardless how low-skilled that job is.

If a job is difficult, you should be paid more for that difficulty because few people are going to want to do it.

If the company can afford to pay you $30 an hour, you shouldn't be accepting $20. My motto has always been "Know your worth, even if it pisses people off."

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Lorathis@reddit

It feels like you are using Walmart arguments against Target. I literally said Target offers $18 an hour. Not amazing, but not the $7.25 minimum wage that Walmart offers.

Your rant applies to Walmart.

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HoarderCollector@reddit

The Wal-Mart around here actually hires at $17, last time I checked, but it's an arbitrary number and an arbitrary company.

My point is that ANY Billion Dollar business can afford to pay their employees whatever they want; they can afford to raise their wages when it's harder to find employees to do that job. So they can afford to pay $18, $20, even $35 an hour to bag groceries IF they wanted to.

And if they do that, smaller business won't be able to compete with their wages and will likely go out of business, meaning those Billion Dollar companies can then fire all of the people they're paying those higher wages to and hire other people at much lower wages again.

If the company you work for isn't a Billion Dollar Company, they may not be able to pay you what you're worth, whether they want to or not.

I'm not saying it's good or bad, it just is what it is.

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Lorathis@reddit

I'm not sure you understand math correctly.

Walmart profit 157 Billion in 2024. Employee count 2.1 million. That works out to $74,761 profit per employee.

So if Walmart wanted to drop profits to $0 then they could pay $8.62 more per hour (8,670 hours in a work year) for every employee on top of whatever their current average is.

Looks like online average is from $10-$30 with an overall average of $18 in Utah.

So in Utah they could pay $26.62 per hour and then they'd make no money through the year.

So no, they couldn't pay $35/hour to bag groceries. Then they'd go out of business.

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TooManyDraculas@reddit

Right. And in general none of those are living wages in the US. Last I checked the living wage nationally was something like $48k and in many areas it's up over $55k. And that's for a single person.

You start talking house holds and kids, the numbers are a lot higher.

It's not just entry level. I've had people try to poach me for executive level roles. I always immediately ask about the budget for compensation (to save us all a lot of time) and the offers are laughable and not on par with my current salary.

I haven't had the last 3 or 4 calls go more than 15 minutes because companies don't want to pay for talent. They're hoping they find someone desperate or find a needle in a haystack of someone who has great experience but is somehow being paid less than what they are offering.

I'm incredibly thankful that I'm not looking for a new role at the moment

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a22x2@reddit

As I was reading your comment and before I read your last sentence, I was already thinking “these incompetent hires are all straight white men, no doubt” lol.

Yikes. I’d be willing to try almost anything in your shoes. That’s frustrating isht. Unless you have aversions to Free Masons, there should be a leg-in regardless of race by connecting there just to get a dream job and then abandon them if you aren’t actually interested. So many are educated and disturbingly loyal to one another that I’d be willing to play them into feeling intellectually and socially admirable associating with an educated father who it looks virtuous to help if part of the “secret group”. I’d also check out HBC’s or places known to seek diverse candidates - the CDC, a hospital, lots of places want bachelor degrees, but any science or math degree is like, why wouldn’t you be a good choice for salaried roles at these places.

My son’s in college right now, and I’d scratch and claw somebody if they do this to him. Over here rolling up my sleeves

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MyUsername2459@reddit

Some level of this mismatch, in both directions, is probably inevitable in the modern job market. But the current market seems way out of the norm.

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Roonil-B_Wazlib@reddit

I’m running into that currently. A whole lot of people with minimal experience and a fresh certification think they are far more qualified than they are. Some of the arrogance is astonishing. It’s a senior manager role. I really don’t mind training people and don’t expect a perfect candidate, but there needs to be some core competencies. I’m particularly shocked because it’s fully remote, and I’d expect that to drive a healthy candidate pool.

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Mysteryman64@reddit

You may want to look into how you're picking candidates.

GOTaSMALL1@reddit

There's a problem with "Fuck that! I know my worth!!"... and it's a hard thing to hear and unpleasant thing to say:

If you're un/underemployed and aren't "getting what you're worth" then, sorry to say this, you just aren't worth that much. Cause if you were... somebody would pay you that much.

Sorry.

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technofox01@reddit

Oh, I know. That's why it is important to do your research on salaries of the same or similar positions with the same or similar qualifications. I did that every time I was job hopping in private sector.

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GreenOnionCrusader@reddit

What, you don't want to work for a place that would require a degree and 5 years experience for $12/hr?

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auntlynnie@reddit

Don't forget that health insurance (IF you're eligible) will be $500 a month!

Nobody is offering a reasonable wage.
Many jobs "hiring" aren't actually hiring.
Many people just don't have the qualifications to be competitive in this job market. A college degree doesn't go very far these days.

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Changing_Flavors@reddit

American workforce is weak. I work alongside "stations" everywhere in the world. We're in trouble.

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srirachacoffee1945@reddit

Because businesses are hiring idiots that they can use and abuse, and most people don't like being used, abused, and treated like an idiot.

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GaryOak7@reddit

Businesses have become extremely picky and there’s limited availability.

GoodbyeForeverDavid@reddit

Skills mismatch between job seekers and employers. As of the end of last year the sectors with the most openings were healthcare, professional services, leisure and hospitality, and "trade, transportation, and utilities". As you go down the list other sectors are hiring progressively less. Eventually you get to the sectors that are laying offs, like the tech sector. So if someone is in the tech sector they have a lot of competition and fewer opportunities. While they have skills they aren't qualified to be a nurse, doctor, CPA, civil engineer, etc. And they're likely not willing to take other jobs they could get that ask for little/no experience. Their best bet is to do tech work in another sector. Unfortunately they won't have the depth of experience or specialized knowledge of folks who've been in that sector for a while.

Unemployment is still low but hiring has slowed as has job switching. Job openings fell over 2024 and are much much lower than 2-4 years ago. If your perception is anchoring to the hiring frenzy of 2022 then it's time to recalibrate those expectations.

Finally, These are all national metrics and patterns. That means all these things will look different, often very different, depending on the region's economy.

Good luck in your search.

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TechKnight25@reddit

Isn't healthcare like, deliberately limited though? They created a doctor shortage intentionally

They also take a very long time to finish their education, as do lawyers

For the rest, I bet they are low paying jobs, so no wonder why nobody is taking them

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GoodbyeForeverDavid@reddit

There is a shortage of doctors. Personally, i would avoid the word "deliberately". Mostly situations like these arise out of multiple compounding policies that often have unintended consequences, conflict with one another, and sometimes work against their stated goals. One could argue (probably accurately) that DPOR serves to limit the supply of professions like doctors, but their stated function is to ensure minimally adequate training.

A few years back there were too many lawyers and they were struggling to find work. I'm not sure where it stands today though.

I'm not sure what you mean by "as for the rest". There are lots more professions besides doctors and lawyers. Some pay better. Some pay worse. But that's not the point.

TechKnight25@reddit

I'd be totally willing to relocate anywhere, provided that the company gives relocation assistance if it's far from my current home.

Many companies expect you to move out of your own pocket, which.... nope!
Many companies also reject applicants regardless of willingness to move, if they are not already local.

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wbruce098@reddit

Yeah the whole thing is very complex. If my corporate HQ is in NYC, I might struggle hiring people to work there if I can’t pay NYC money - especially if they can make the same pay in Ohio.

OTOH, if I’m building an EV battery factory in Idaho or rural Alabama, I might struggle to attract experienced electrical engineers who want to move there, even if I can hire a bunch of locals to do the less specialized jobs at much lower rates than I could in NY or CA.

Fitting the right job, with the right pay, in the right location, to the right applicant who is a good fit gets much harder with specialized work.

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blueline7677@reddit

As someone who has moved 600/650/1200 miles (it really matters how you define moved for my first job) moving is for work isn’t easy. At this point in my life I don’t think I’m going to do it again

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Tommy_Wisseau_burner@reddit

That’s true. I turned a job down at blue origin that would’ve been a demotion in terms of job title but increase by 50%. Thing is I’d have to move from Tampa bay to Denver. COL is higher there than Tampa bay but my job is in Austin so I get Austin money. But since Austin’s COL is closer to Denver than to Tampa it would be a financially smart move… but I love the beach.

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lopingwolf@reddit

It arguably falls under pay mismatch, but I'd probably add a third category "hours mismatch".

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I read something similar about a month ago.

They actually tested it with 3 people with different abouts of professional experience. 2,5,9 years. Yet none of them received a phone call or anything after applied at the same 20 jobs.

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even_the_losers_1979@reddit

You need to post jobs if you want to sponsor a visa for a foreign worker. Companies post the job then say no one qualified applied and then they can give the job to a non citizen. It’s a well tolerated scam in California. Not sure about the rest of the US.

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ChoneFigginsStan@reddit

There’s political/tax reasons for this too. If a company claims they have 100 new positions available, they can get a tax break. They won’t ever fill these positions, they’ll interview and advertise, but they’ll never fill it. The government doesn’t get on them about it, because the governor can claim that 100 new jobs were created under their governorship.

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feryoooday@reddit

Yeah these jobs don’t actually exist. They aren’t hiring. That’s why.

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jfchops2@reddit

Last year I applied for the same exact job three times, each app about a month and a half apart. It was the perfect fit, I'm 100% certain I was one of the top few applicants and I had an employee referral within the company. Nothing, just the automated "thanks but no" email a few days later each time

I find it hard to believe they actually hired two people for it and learned immediately that they messed up and had to repost it, as well as that a recruiter actually read my resume (supposedly guaranteed to pass ATS with a referral) and decided not to call me. And I've never found someone on LinkedIn with the title which is niche, so seems like a clear case of a fake job posting

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canisdirusarctos@reddit

For those looking, it seems like 1 in 5 are legitimate. Perhaps it is worse in some industries.

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Altruistic_Fondant38@reddit

Lack of experience and demanding more money for no skills. They want CEO pay with janitor skills.

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TechKnight25@reddit

In fact the actual issue is the opposite: companies want senior skills for junior pay

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That's certainly not a bad rate, though depends on where exactly you are located. In SF or something, that'd be pretty bad actually, whereas it would be fantastic in like Denton, Texas

But tech probably pays double that amount for entry-level roles, so it's no wonder why people go into tech.

Carpentry is certainly a decent choice if someone has no experience with tech and is not super thrilled by it. But it's not like it doesn't have its own hardships, especially physically, and a lot of people ARE into tech.

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EdgarJNormal@reddit

Are these 1099 employees (contractors)? If so, that means all their benefits (and taxes) must come out of the hourly pay. They can't get unemployment benefits, so all the potential "down-time" must get banked to prepare. $50/hr seems like a great pay rate, but 1/3 to 1/2 of that goes to expenses you would not pay if it was a regular full time gig.

In the (technical) contracting world, the hourly contract rate is (rule of thumb) 2x the full-time salary (in other words, to get an hourly equivalent, take the full time yearly salary and divide by 1000, since 2000 hr/yr is generally considered "full time).

Talk to the folks making $40-$50/hr and see how much their take-home is... how much they can save for retirement. In most areas that have construction, (high end or not) most of the contractors are living hand-mouth.

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Loose-Set4266@reddit

We don't use 1099 contractors. All of our employees are W2 and receive full benefits paid by the company on top of their hourly rate and bonuses. I know exactly what their take home pay is because I'm the one running payroll.

.

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EdgarJNormal@reddit

Sounds reasonable. I'm still curious about how your employees are living- how does the pay compare to the median income for the area?

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Loose-Set4266@reddit

we are in line with the median household income and that is without including any working spouses. Most of our team have spouses that also work fulltime.

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Crimsonfangknight@reddit

They arent struggling to find a job

They are struggling to find a “good” job

They are holding out for jobs they deem worthy of whatever it is they think they bring to the table. They wont settle for Ll those jobs that are available because they feel It is beneath them

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Designer-Mirror-7995@reddit

Okay, I can see all of this

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cephalophile32@reddit

They’re not hiring - they’re pretending to hire.

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kal14144@reddit

BLS regularly tracks both job openings and hirings. Obviously there are some bad actors but overall the number of job openings more or less tracks the number of hirings. But it’s 2025 so when you can’t find a job it must be a grand conspiracy not a mismatch of your expectations and your marketability

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q0vneob@reddit

Im in tech and I see sooo many. Ridiculous requirements/prereqs and terrible pay - just so they can say they cant find anyone and do the H1B thing or outsource.

6a6566663437@reddit

Sponsoring H1B doesn't require proving that they can't find a US resident for the position....

...unless they are an "H1B Dependent Employer".

A ton of "consulting" and outsourcing companies qualify as H1B dependent.

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Suppafly@reddit

Sponsoring H1B doesn't require proving that they can't find a US resident for the position.

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Mysteryman64@reddit

A lot of companies want to pay pre-COVID inflation wages and a lot of those jobs aren't worth taking.

I can post as many positions for doctor's with a starting salary of $10 an hour as I want. I'm not likely to find anyone willing to fill the position.

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pronthrowaway124@reddit

They claim they are hiring but want to pay nothing. Then whine to government, “we can’t find anyone”, so they can import H1b all so the c-suite can get another plane/yacht, 15th vacation house, golf club membership.

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This depends very heavily on industry, white collar jobs play all kinds of games whit posting fake job listings or wanting way to many qualifications, most blue collar work is always hiring and will get anyone with a pulse a job if they can pass a drug screen

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cwgrlkor@reddit

My company is hiring several positions for which I am the hiring manager and I only found out once I started receiving notifications this week. I don’t actually have the openings on my team. I think the HR team wanted to look busy and decided to open them but really I would only hire someone right now if someone on my team were let go. It seems HR just wanted to “keep a funnel of people open” in case we need it. But realistically, that wouldn’t be for month. It makes me feel bad because people are reaching out to me regarding their interest in the job and I can’t tell them that it doesn’t exist.

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Torchic336@reddit

At the beginning of the year my company brought on 13 new employees while retaining all 45 of our employees that worked with us to end 2024. A whopping 1 new employee was someone who effectively cold applied via our website, the other 12 were hired due to recommendations from other employees. It’s truly not what you know it is who you know in this job market.

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rockandroller@reddit

In particular, retail and restaurant businesses are all hiring because they refuse to even interview you unless you have complete and total availability to work any shift any day any time including evenings weekends and holidays. The bulk of these jobs are done by women. Women are still the primary caretakers for children. They can’t just work every night and leave their kids home alone or with a man who sits on a gaming system all night, they need to help with homework and baths and food and you know, parent, and these jobs are not working around parental availability. The younger people without kids aren’t going to be abused like these jobs want you to be for 15 an hour when they can get a job somewhere else for more money, which many of them do. Teenagers aren’t allowed to work late hours or tons of shifts a week. Hence, “nobody wants to work.”

ViewtifulGene@reddit

The jobs open might not be suitable for the people looking for work.

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Don't forget the visa stuff, many companies are attempting to default the federal visa programs, and make job postings just so they can say they can't find anyone. Those posting are intentionally hard to find and they intentionally don't hire people with them, the entire point is to prove they got not good applicants.

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androidmids@reddit

Because the majority of the people looking for jobs are looking for jobs with pay and benefits greater than what is being offered.

For instance. I could get a job at McDonald's or Walmart tomorrow. But I couldn't provide for my family, unless my spouse also got a job and probably our oldest kid too...

Whereas where I currently work I make enough to cover all our expenses.

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Aaarrrgghh1@reddit

So from what I’ve read a lot of companies are having postings but not hiring.

Like look we are hiring but never interview or make offers.

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ladylucifer22@reddit

many postings are fake. they want to make the company look like it's growing when it's not, or harvest your data, or just have an army of resumes for when they actually do want to hire. i have awards for volunteer service and couldn't even get a job washing dishes. the jobs that demand a master's degree for 13 dollars an hour are even worse.

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MerelyMortalModeling@reddit

Seems to me many many employers want me to work like it's 2025 but want to pay like it's 2019.

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Krow101@reddit

Usually low paying jobs that increase the wealth disparity. Billionaires can't be expected to get by with only 1 super yacht. Keep voting Republican serfs.

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groundhogcow@reddit

They are not hiring.

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Crayshack@reddit

A lot of the places hiring are paying peanuts and treat their people like trash. People who know what they're worth want to be paid decently and treated well, but emploers don't like that.

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SubsequentNebula@reddit

In my area, there are three main kinds of jobs left over:

Underpaid medical jobs.

Jobs from companies that aren't actually hiring this second, but instead just collecting a bunch of resumes from people, keeping the ones they like, then reaching out literally months later when they're ready to start hiring again.

Or they want people with insane qualifications to do grunt work for barely enough to make rent.

Everything else genuinely does get taken pretty much instantly. Got lucky and got accepted in to a contract position where I work three 10 hour days a week, barely have to talk to anyone, and get paid 66% more than I was making working 9-10 hours 5 days a week on a job I got with my degree. A lot of people just don't want to be handed shit pay for excessive work.

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Offi95@reddit

Because Trump voters can’t outcompete 3rd world migrants for a minimum wage job, and they just bitch really loudly about it.

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Offi95@reddit

Because Trump voters can’t outcompete 3rd world migrants for a minimum wage job

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AdamZapple1@reddit

I've heard a lot of job postings are fake these days.

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TaraJo@reddit

A few months back, a Wendy’s was built up the street from me. They had to hire a bunch of people to run the restraint which means there are jobs available, right?

I’m pretty sure those jobs don’t pay enough to cover bills like rent, food, electricity, phone, etc.

Some people have a minimum they can work for that’s significantly less than a lot of jobs pay. It might sound petty, but if daycare for your kids costs $900 a month and you only make $800 a month, it just doesn’t make sense to work.

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TheLurkingMenace@reddit

Because they aren't actually hiring. They advertise the position and you go apply, then find out the pay is far below what you can live on. Then the boss hires his useless nephew at a real salary. Or gets H1Bs he can pay at the too low rate.

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tacocat63@reddit

Guess: massive disconnect between supply/demand on wages.

Fact: companies post openings that don't exist. The purpose is to harvest contacts

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_haha_oh_wow_@reddit

A lot of business are offering garbage pay for jobs that should be paying WAAAAAY more.

"Nobody wants to work anymore" is a lie they tell, what they really mean is, "We want everyone to work for poverty wages!"

Much of the time, they are doing it for H1B visa fraud: Corporations intentionally make fraudulent postings that nobody in their right mind would accept and then claim they just can't find anyone, and therefore must hire overseas paying a fraction of what the wage should be.

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BluePoleJacket69@reddit

Umm, from the other side of things, I don’t think HR is always on top of it when it comes to hiring. The hiring process is drawn out into oblivion. I’ll apply to 5 places, only hear back from 1, maybe start at 1, then get a rejection letter two months later in my email from only one other. It’s a pain in the ass. Now that I’m working and we’re extremely understaffed, I have suspicions that they just are doing a really bad job at hiring people for my location, on purpose or otherwise.

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Sleepdprived@reddit

Many companies are posting positions for hire, but not hiring anyone. They can tell their employees "we are looking for more people" while not actually looking for people. This allows them to keep staff as low as possible which of course overworks the staff, but keeps payroll down which keeps profits up. If an employee quits, they just divide the work among remaining employees. If they suddenly lose too many people they just hire a bunch of replacements and keep the best while firing the rest after the first paycheck.

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Kevin7650@reddit

Ridiculous requirements a lot of the time. Jobs that used to be entry level and/or didn’t require a degree now ask for X years of experience or for a degree.

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Cheaperthantherapy13@reddit

And the flip side. Job applicants with no qualifications and unreasonable expectations.

My niece is in her early 20s, has a ‘special’ diploma given to IEP kids who can’t actually fulfill the requirements for graduation. Since high school, her resume is a few weeks/months here and there at restaurants and daycares because she ends up quitting or getting fired for poor attendance. Then she started hitting us up to buy CutCo knives.

My SO is helping her look for a real job, but the only thing she wants to apply for is WFH positions. The poor kid can’t write a coherent sentence; she didn’t even know what Excel was when asked about her computer skills. But she’s got it in her head that she’s too anxious to hold any customer facing job, and needs to be at home with her ‘step kids’ because BF doesn’t want to pay for them to go to daycare.

She’s the kind of person who would actually thrive in a really straightforward hourly job like dishwashing or restocking shelves, but everyone’s telling her she’s too good for that so she refuses to apply for those positions. No one wants to hear that she’s completely and utterly unqualified for administrative work. It’s actually a pretty sad situation.

My other niece is a college-bound honors student with no real direction for her future beyond making her mom happy by getting that degree, and the hardest part of the current job market is telling her that unless she starts hustling yesterday, it’s going to be just as hard for her to find a job as her older cousin.

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huhwhat90@reddit

and the hardest part of the current job market is telling her that unless she starts hustling yesterday, it’s going to be just as hard for her to find a job as her older cousin.

I learned this the hard way. I went back to school as a full-time working adult. Got a degree in HR and did well. I couldn't do an internship because of...y'know...working full-time and having to take care of a sick parent. Turns out that if you don't do an internship, your degree is pretty much worthless. That's how you get the "1-2 years experience" that companies expect for "entry level" jobs now. So I implore all young folk to do an internship in college. It could be invaluable.

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jittery_raccoon@reddit

That's sad cause people are actually holding her back. A young kid that starts as a dishwasher may find a passion for being a chef or a GM and be really good at it. Being forced toward something you're actually terrible at is how you fail again

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Suppafly@reddit

My niece is in her early 20s, has a ‘special’ diploma given to IEP kids who can’t actually fulfill the requirements for graduation.

Practical-Wave-6988@reddit

I have always told people to look at the job requirement lists as "wish lists". Provided you meet most (I'd recommend at least 60%) of the requirements there's no harm in applying.

It's also about how you can align your prior experience to the role, so for example you may have 3 years of general customer service experience and are looking at a job that is B2B so not "customer facing".

This may not seem like it would relate, but handling/dealing with the general public builds a skillset that can be used when working with others who are not customers because the other business' employees are still your "customers".

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TooManyDraculas@reddit

My cousin is involved in hiring for a major financial and banking company,

From what he tells me they give the actual requirements and expectations to their recruitment/HR department. Then the job listing comes out, and 2 years experience has become 6. A bachelors degree has become a masters. And nothing about the job description relates to the position at all. Even the job title is often a mismatch.

Despite demanding it they can't get them to add salary ranges to the listings. And they often flag the jobs internally with a pay range much lower than industry standard, and much lower than his department actually intends to pay.

There's some internal rubric for these things that badly clashes with the reality.

While they try to flat out ignore it and contact the applicants that actually fit. A lot of time they can't even see applications unless they tick those boxes.

So the company is actively screening out the applicants they're actually looking for.

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marcus_frisbee@reddit

I think it is because a lot of people feel they are worth more than the market is paying. I would recommend that people searching for a job use websites like glassdoor or payscale.

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A lot of businesses aren't hiring. They post fake job offers to see what kind of salaries people are willing to take, make their business seem more competitive than it actually is, or because they already have someone internal in mind but are legally required to pretend to look for other applicants

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SuggestionTotal8313@reddit

Because the jobs that are hiring only give you a few hours a week.

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Semi-Pros-and-Cons@reddit

Lots of businesses are "hiring" in the sense of putting up ads for jobs that they have no intention of filling.

Otherwise, they're looking for someone with 30 years of experience who is willing to work for minimum wage.

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Defective-Pomeranian@reddit

Factoring in my VA disability, the stress of a lot of the places ain't worth the pay. I make 1700 a month doing nothing. Also, a lot of jobs require higher education i don't have.

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Hoosiertolian@reddit

People aren't struggling to find jobs. People are struggling to find jobs that pay right and provide acceptable benefits.

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alwayshornyhelp@reddit

Jobs have too high expectations, people want a fair wage and jobs don’t typically offer that because they “need” to profit

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CommodorePuffin@reddit

It's usually one of two things or in some cases, both of these things:

They're pretending to hire. This is mostly done to make their company outwardly appear successful and/or to imply to current employees that they can be replaced at any time.
They want a "purple unicorn." In other words, they want someone relatively young with lots of experience, yet has no outside commitments (if you're a woman, this absolutely includes kids or a desire to have kids), is perfectly healthy, will work anytime and for as long as needed, and is perfectly happy working for the lowest wage possible.

In both cases, no one's actually getting hired because the first instance means they're not really hiring at all and the second is just them waiting for some mythical "perfect candidate" to appear while working their current staff harder.

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PacSan300@reddit

The second one reminds me of some buzzwords that used to be fairly common in the tech industry, such as “rockstar developer” or “software Jedi”.

It sure looks that way, doesn't it?

-A lot of businesses 'hiring' are offering terms that aren't up to the market. Or are (to sum up) bad workplaces with a lot of overturn. Or are simply keeping listings up on places like Indeed for positions that are only technically there. (They might hire a miracle candidate or something, but generally, they just leave the ad up.)

-Some businesses took their economic stimulus (meant to spur employment) and sat on it as 'free money'. If they keep rejecting people, they don't have to spend it.

-(This one I can tell you) some job openings are only technically public and open because there's a law requiring it, they mean to hire internally. (This is, sarcastically, sometimes referred to as "We're looking for a subject-expert on this topic who speaks these specific languages, has five years' experience on a four year old system, and who will answer to the name Dave Johannsen." listings.)

-Sometimes jobs have (technically, unnecessary) requirements listed. In a different job market, it's usually assumed that requirements are written as a wishlist of what they'd (ideally) want, so there's some wiggle room. When there's lots of applicants, those 'wishlists' get a lot more hardened. Meanwhile, people who might be good at a job with a lateral-transfer nature to it (say, "I work in the kind of customer-service that would make me ideal in receptions") but don't fit the 'wishlist' are kind of SOL.

There's more, but this is all true.

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BullfrogPersonal@reddit

Anyone can get a job.

The thing that has to match is the company's employment offerings and the needs of people to make money. Seems like wages have stagnated but living costs have skyrocketed. The result is there are a lot of lower paying jobs but people can't afford to take them.

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Ashamed-Complaint423@reddit

Because they aren't really hiring and just filling out the market to see what's out there. Or they aren't paying anything.

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ajkimmins@reddit

"Entry level-min wage Must have 20 years experience"

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RavenRead@reddit

I think it’s a lot of open positions and a lot of people applying but the computer systems are ignoring most applicants stating they’re unqualified. Applicants haven’t suddenly become overnight. They’re the same as always. Bots and systems are looking for keywords and workers with experience. That’s not how it works. It’s rare to find people like that because no one in reality wants that. For example, you hire for an IT specialist and the system looks for applicants with jobs on resumes which list IT positions with x years of experience. Most people are moving jobs and growing. So maybe they have the skills and experience but never held this specific, exact title before. They have been an Admin Assistant who has covered duties of fixing computer issues for their department. They get passed over and labeled “unqualified” when in fact that’s not true. They weren’t the IT Help Desk but they did that duty, liked it, and now want to do it full-time. A human can see this, but not a bot looking at key words.

Third is employment websites and how they tie algorithms between the two above reasons. The employment software will automatically filter through resumes and eliminate a bunch based on keywords and employment history. Businesses will also keep listings active at ridiculously low salaries to see the quality of employee that still applies and gauge their pay scale with no intention of hiring anyone.

On the flip side, employees. I know several unemployed people who will just throw their resume at every posting and claim they applied for hundreds of jobs without any prospects. The websites make it too easy to apply so the companies have to use the software to filter out the obvious low effort searchers.

People that are successful often bypass the indeeds and zip recruiter websites and go to the company website and look for listings. Then the application and resume can be tailored to the job they are applying for and sent directly to the company.

My startup failed during COVID so I went back to big tech. I’m doing fine but I am making less now (like about $100k/yr less) than when I left in 2017 and I’m in a more senior role lol

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AlfredoAllenPoe@reddit

The job market isn't just one market. It's divided into hundreds of different markets based on skillset.

Some job markets are thriving. Some are struggling.

The people complaining are looking for jobs in industries who job markets are struggling.

It's also a selection bias issue. It's not like the people who find jobs easily are going to post about it, but people who are struggling will vent on social media.

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brzantium@reddit

Also depends on where you are in your career. I'm looking for mid-level roles, but I keep running into entry level. Looks great for someone straight out of college, but not my 40something ass.

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Many_Pea_9117@reddit

It also depends on your region/city. Where i live its all mid level roles (which I love since I'm 10 years into my career), but few entry-level ones, so many of my friends who are new to a job, or are changing careers are really struggling.

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brzantium@reddit

That's true. A lot of roles I'm looking at would require me to relocate.

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salbrown@reddit

Cost of living and wages are so out of sync that people are struggling to find jobs that pay a living wage while at the same time smaller businesses are struggling to pay that living wage.

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duke_awapuhi@reddit

I think a lot of service jobs are opening up and people who have taken out massive amounts of debt for a university degree don’t want them

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Cyoarp@reddit

Because they aren't actually looking. Something like 60% of all job listings are fake.

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atomfullerene@reddit

And a huge fraction of job applications are AI generated spam too. It's bots talking to bots through the whole economy.

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Cyoarp@reddit

I mean... Yah you higher bots to donjon apa because you will never find a job otherwise. But it was the fake listings that caused the problem.

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Kielbasa_Nunchucka@reddit

low pay and high expectations on the company side.

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Shaggy214@reddit

Because they aren't really hiring and if they are they require a masters degree for a $15 and hour job.

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6894@reddit

masters degree for a $15 and hour job.

Work on your resume then. I can tell you most employers aren't concerned about alleviating anyone's situation, if an applicant isn't going to work out for an employer because of not being able to meet the needs of a position, they don't care what your story is.

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Suppafly@reddit

Who in the heck needs a job, still, these days?

Intelligent_Host_582@reddit

Most of my contemporaries who are out of work for long periods are middle management-level GenXers. There arent enough available positions at our level, and age discrimination is real.

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superdupermensch@reddit

Just because you put up an ad that you are hiring does not mean that you plan to hire anyone. Those already employed will be placated and continue to work hard in the hopes that you will genuinely hire someone to ease the burden on those who are already there. You can placate them even more by saying that "no one wants to work anymore.," or some other nonsense.

Why pay more employees when the ones you have are already dong it and do not want to quit and live in poverty?

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StationOk7229@reddit

It is those pesky drug tests. Most of us just can't pass them.

Oversaturated job market for some skills. A business only need so many people that went to school as a business major.

Another thing is companies letting go of senior people and promoting from within people for a lower salary than what they were paying the last person.

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stxxyy@reddit

They use tools now to filter through applicants. If you don't have certain keywords, referral information or education listed, high chance you're automatically being filtered out without them ever looking at your application

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candykhan@reddit

Easy. Those jobs aren't real. Ghost jobs are definitely a thing.

That, and nO-oNe WaNtS tO wOrK!!! (for an insulting wage that is so far below what their labor is worth).

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Capri2256@reddit

The data measures completely different things. Unemployment measures the number of people who have filed divided by the number of people in the labor force (employed+filed). The participation rate is participation rate measures the number of people who are working divided by the number of people would could be working even if they haven't filed (employed+unemployed)

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NoneOfThisMatters_XO@reddit

Who’s hiring? There’s jobs posted to make companies and the economy look good, but no one is actually hiring.

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JoshWestNOLA@reddit

The official answer is “skills mismatch.” One unofficial answer is that a lot of job openings aren’t real. Companies advertise jobs because they have to (often due to internal policies) even if they are just intending to promote an internal candidate. At one place I worked they have to interview at least (?) three people for any job opening.

And, sometimes companies don’t have an opening for a job, but they want to collect potential candidates for future openings. Lame. 😜

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atomfullerene@reddit

If you click on a few social media posts or stories about people having trouble finding a job, your feeds will be flooded with more stories of people having a hard time finding a job.

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AssortedGourds@reddit

We are still going through a mass disabling event with Covid and employers are unwilling to make changes to their business and their mindset to accommodate workers.

I'm auDHD and am "unemployable". I have a degree. I may be moving into my car soon.

I'm not a bad worker. I have headed committees in volunteer groups and I make educational content online. I do part-time niche landscaping, too. I am pretty productive and have a good set of skills. Yet I have been fired from every job I have ever had after less than a year. Why?

Because business owners only want workers that are going to work within the framework that already exists. They only want people who can fit their very narrow idea of what a good worker is. I have 5 requirements for a job:

That they do not have a 3 strikes policy
That I be allowed to wear earplugs
That the schedule be consistent. Meaning, I am scheduled to work Sunday-Thursday and those are the only days I work (barring occasional shift swapping)
That if I arrive <30 minutes late, it's fine as long as I still do the full 8 hours
That I not interact with the public for more than an hour or two a day

30 years ago less was expected of minimum wage workers and there were easy jobs that could help people like me keep the lights on. The standards are sky-high now and most of the accessible jobs have been automated.

This isn't because these things can't be accommodated - it's that they just don't want to. I did labor organizing and one of the most surprising things to learn is that most business owners will actually take a loss before they will accommodate disabled workers. It's sometimes LESS expensive to be flexible and try to meet someone where they're at.

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Sageburner712@reddit

A lot of people have brought up some great points, but my experience over the last few months suggests another element is that this is still a much hotter job/employee market than companies are used to and they don't have the HR/hiring staff to handle the volume of applicants and open positions.

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Ghost jobs. Should be illegal

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Delta9312@reddit

Minimum requirements: master's degree in a related field plus 3-5 years experience in the industry.

Pay: $17.23/hr

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Budgiejen@reddit

I think a lot of people who are job hunting, at least in my area, don’t have skills. They don’t have training or a degree. There are only so many entry-level positions.

Degree programs seem to have been very much downplayed in recent years. A lot of trade school hype. But it seems like a lot of people think they can skate by on a high school diploma, and that’s just not possible for most of us.

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Cayke_Cooky@reddit

lots of the open apps are for lower pay than is reasonable.

A whole bunch of boomers "retired" in Covid and then came back in 2022/23, but they came back at a lower level than they left at, filling the mid-level positions. They don't want to take the "next step" promotion because they were already there and don't want the responsibility again. But you can't jump an entry level to upper management, they need those learning years at mid-level.

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Reverend_Bull@reddit

Ghost jobs - listings to gather personal data and gauge the market. Also, jobs using terrible filters like AI keyword searches on applications that exclude folks who don't use the magic words. Then there's the issue of flexibility. Many folks looking for work are already employed but can't find anyone who will pay full time or living wage

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TweeksTurbos@reddit

It’s easy and free to post a help wanted ad. Hiring somebody and taking food away from the investors is costly.