I tend to agree with you ..... and it's especially galling, like you say, when, despite a CV full of experience and qualifications, you also have to devote up to 2 hours making up, errr, I mean "tailoring" examples of when you did this, that or the other, and what the outcome was, for an entry level job (because you, and 1000s of others are bloody desperate) that's paying minimum wage.
The very worst thing about an employer's market for me though is the disdain with which so many treat prospective applicants long before you've even applied. I mean the job adverts where "salary" is described, not in monetary terms, but in lying through your teeth insulting psychobabble such as "competitive", "very attractive", or "great package". Okay ...... you usually have some idea of the range in a particular role, but it's not always clear, and conversely (and more so these days) obviously a lot of employers are looking to pay the minimum possible so the range applicable 2 or 3 years ago may actually have reduced now. I've called places up to try and establish what the pay is before wasting hours on an application form and even then have often been met with an awkward silence and claims that the person I'm speaking to "doesn't know" and that it'll "be discussed at interview". It makes me so mad ...... when you literally can't get a straight answer out of them, you end up nonetheless spending loads of time on an application for a job which might not be financially viable for you anyway (but you worry about any possibility slipping through your fingers). The worst thing is that these "competitive" salaries seem increasingly to apply to jobs that are paying shite - and I mean real shite - minimum wage or just above .... how on earth can these people describe the pay as "very attractive". I actually find that really insulting ..... like the people who apply must be so thick and undeserving that they won't notice they're being offered £6 an hour.