What is going on with the job market at the moment!

[scotchbonnetface]

100s of people applying for the same job. The salaries are abysmal and unless you have years of experience, you’ve got no chance of even being selected for interview.

There seems to be no middle ground of roles either. It’s either care work on minimum wage or senior such and such at £75k with minimum 5 years experience.

Luckily I have a job at the moment, but it’s a rocky industry and redundancy may be looming. In my 40s, I’m not sure I have it in me to retrain!

Even if I did have the energy, what sort of roles are even out there anymore?

Just needed a moan really

Yes anyone with an ounce of insight would know this. Sadly Labour are too removed to know.

Since we are paying taxes to pay universal credit to the staff of companies who don’t pay staff enough to live I think we have a lot of none viable small business out there

we have been in a downward spiral for decades now

the NI doesn’t cover the UC we are giving back in many cases - mostly into the hands of landlords

I think AI is already having a considerable impact and companies are able to achieve the same output with less staff.

In other (service) industries not as affected by AI, the rise in employment costs (NI, min wage etc) at the bottom means the need to trim wages and jobs at the middle to maintain profit margins.

Sadly I think the labour market is only going to get worse for those in the middle.

I’ve been applying for roles since November and have only JUST gotten an offer. Apparently I’m quite lucky, too, as it’s taken another colleague ever a year!

the thing that frustrates me is that my role (in projects) seems to be advertised at anywhere between 35k and 65k!! It should be around the 50k minimum mark but of course some companies love to cheap out and know people will jump into anything at the moment.

But those CEOs aren’t the ones taking pay cuts and being made redundant.

A friend works for a “small” company who have grown quite exponentially over the last year. The CEO responded to that by restructuring, making people redundant, and bragging about buying a couple of horses for his kids.

It’s hard not to look at that and feel judgemental as these companies then make insulting offers to new staff under 15k the going market rate for those roles. It utterly takes the piss.

I don’t think there is a recession technically, but it’s very close and at high risk yes!

But if you look at some of today's posts on this very thread, people are talking about NI payments and that's what's been rife on the internet since it was announced so that where the question of greed comes in because many people are admitting that they begrudge paying higher NI payments.

It’s exactly the point.
If you have a budget of say, £1m for the marketing team, that £1m now won’t cover higher NI costs and their salaries. That means someone will have to be let go! There no “begrudging”, it’s just maths.

If you tax employment, there will be less employment.

It obviously depends on your industry/role. Sounds like it's very difficult for many people at the moment but in my industry there's been loads of recruitment in the last few months. I had my pick of half a dozen jobs, all with better salaries etc. Reasonably niche role though so that probably makes a difference.

What’s your area @rebelmoon?

@FateAmenableToChange insurance industry, I'm an underwriter.

Salaries have been rotting for years - but it's all fine because house prices have gone up and up. Last month I was on an interview panel for an entry level role with a piss poor entry level salary. Not a single entry level candidate made it to interview. It's always been difficult for people without connections to get a foot in the door but now it's almost impossible. All that underutilised talent.

The issue is that there are not enough jobs in an age of computers and our superrich like a system where they can import trained staff from anywhere in the world / outsource to anywhere in the world. They like having slaves.

For some that'll be the genuine case but I've not got rose tinted glasses on so I can see why this would be used as an excuse to stick to cheaper agency labour who you don't have pay holidays or sick pay to! That's reality as we all know because how much was cheaper European used before Brexit!

You are right to be worried. This is not just a recession. There is a general shaking out of roles, lots of middle management delayering, removal of jobs that brexit means are not required anymore, and loss of jobs increasingly to AI. If I was a graduate, I wouldn’t go near marketing or advertising, paralegals are soon not going to be needed. It’s hard to predict what AI is going to fully mean, but it’s going to be fairly catastrophic. People will need to have a very niche skill or practical hands on focus. I’m a small business owner and the new labour laws mean I won’t be hiring new people and will probably make a couple redundant to avoid some of the costs

The work orders are very sluggish in our industry this year. The firm I work is a small business only employing less than ten people but we have had two staff members leave for other employment opportunities over the last 12 months and our company have not looked to replace them as the work orders probably couldn't justify two extra employees at the moment. No pay rises for the last two years either and I'm not expecting one in the near future as I think the employer tax rises have hit our small firm.

Exactly my experience job hunting last year, even when I made it to interview for a H&S Admin job that paid less than the job I'd just been made redundant from, they appeared at interview to want somebody with a more managerial level of experience but those people cost £40 or £50k a year, not £25k! They actually ghosted me and then readvertitsed the role with a higher level job title but only increased the salary offering by £1000 a year!

I'm in my early 60s and at risk of redundancy. I'm dreading it. If I am made redundant I will be up against literally hundreds of people in my industry in the same position who will be looking for similar work. They will be younger than me and a far more attractive prospect to an employer.

I've looked at job adverts over the last few months for university admin (my previous industry which I left 15 years ago) and salaries seem not to have increased at all.

I'm fairly certain that if I do get made redundant I will find it impossible to find another job at even half the salary I am currently on.

I’m a recruiter for most of the last 20 years and it’s absolutely dire - a lot of our industry is being lost to a combination of AI, India and there just not being many jobs to recruit to

I know there is nothing out there, feel for my many many colleagues who have been made redundant

i am very worried about what my teenage kids will do - they seem to think the world is their oyster. How wrong they are!

I work for a large plc and we’re struggling to hire people who give a shit. I must have interviewed 15 people last month for two roles. Some didn’t turn up, one lady typing on her phone, another clearly did no research. This is for a £70k/year job. I don’t understand what has happened to all the good talent that existed 8 years ago. The good ones not looking to move companies?

I was out of work for most of last year despite having a good wok history in a professional career. I'm now working in a good job, but via agency and it's very unstable. I could be let go with a moments notice, so I'm desperately trying to make myself as useful as possible. Which has actually been great for career development, I've achieved loads in 6 months. It could all end tomorrow, but then again anyone in a perm role could also be let go they'd just have a bit more notice. So no one is safe.

They haven't done anything yet, it's a bill only. And Unfair Dismissal kicking in after one year was the norm before the Tories changed it to two years. Other countries have even more employee rights and better pensions but also better productivity.

Years of experience doesnt even work. Dh has been without.work.for 2.5 years and keep bwing told.he is over qualified or over experienced. We have no savings left and I am so worried.

its shocking, I’ll be redundant at the end of August and am panicking. My pay bracket is 28-32k ish and jobs seem to want 3-5 years experience for min wage