to think the job centre making you apply for every job is pointless and a waste of time

[wheresthelight]

I appreciate that they want to make sure people are actually applying for jobs but when I was using the service over christmas they were making me apply for jobs massively below my previous career position which meant I was getting loads of rejections for being over qualified etc (not a stealth boast) and I felt awful knowing i was wasting the time of the employer having to go through cvs that were never going to be suitable.

the job I now have (and love) involves some recruitment and I have spent much of the last week ringing people up to invite them for trial/interview and when you speak to them the basic requirements of the job spec are not met ie one of the essential requirements is to hold a full UK driving licence. at least 70% haven't had one and when I say sorry but it's an essential criteria (job is field based) they are pretty dismissive and basically say yeah they know but job centre told them to apply. it is really bloody annoying and a complete waste of time!

Its just bonkers isnt it? Not sure what to say.

i completely agree. my dad isn't well at all, almost sixty and has very bad joints, and problems with discs in his back being eroded from years of work as a builders labourer. he has been told he needs to apply for jobs online, he cant use a computer and doesnt have a cv. there really isn't any job he is qualified for at this stage in his life, he has only ever known manual labour but isn't fit for it anymore. i have had to set him up an online account and apply for every job under the sun for him knowing full well he cant do any of the jobs. its a total waste of my time and the person receiving his cv that i have created but it has to be done to to meet the requirements of his payment. he hasnt received any help on how to actually find a job that could suit him, he was just told to apply for as many jobs as he can.

I wonder if it would be worth some employers getting in touch with the job centres and basically asking them very firmly to stop expecting applicants to apply for jobs they have no hope of getting.

In this particular case, there is an essential criteria, the driving licence, and it could be made quite clear to the job centre that they are wasting the potential employer's time, as well as the applicant's time.

Encouraging people to apply for as many jobs as they are capable of doing is fine, but expecting people to apply for jobs they have no chance of getting due to not having something essential for that job is just stupidity.

As an Employer it's a right PITA you specifically sayust be able to do XYZ then over two thirds of applications are the done for JSA type. So not answering the questions or telling you the information you have asked for.
I think if you apply for a job on jsa it should be relevant to your skills. Waste of everyone's time, just box ticking. I really don't know how you could possible spend 35h a week applying. Surely you are going to have max 4 or 5 job sites so checking new daily jobs and applying isn't going to take 7h a day
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Op, how long were you on it for at Christmas? I thought you were allowed to limit your search to your previous field/level /salary for the first three months or have I made that up?

I agree completely, I volunteer with a job club. People as coming in and applying for anything. It doesn't matter if they don't have essential qualifications or transport to get to the site, or zero interest of zero aptitude for the role. It is all about having entries to put in your activity log.
And the number of people with zero literacy and computing skills who are expected to successfully complete long, complex online applications is heartbreaking. They got no support from the job centre and we can only offer 2hours support a week - not even enough time to fill in one application for Tesco or Primark.

This is exactly why many employers do not advertise through the job centre. It's a total waste of everyone's time. My dp had to go to an interview as a HGV driver. He only has a car license. It's demeaning and embarrassing but if you don't go you are sanctioned

I had an extremely humiliating interview when I had a different advisor to my usual one - i was 6 months pregnant and desperately searching for short term work and was told my allowance would be cut if I continued to apply for short term contracts only. I thought maybe she hadn't understood I was pregnant and maybe thought I was fat - but no she told me I had to apply for permanent positions or the allowance would be stopped. What an utter waste of everyone's time. No help, no advice or attempt to find a suitable role. I got the other adviser the next time and she just said apply for a few but sje understood the reality as well as I did. Utterly frustrating.

We avoid using the jobcentre now - I think last time we signed up we had 400 applicants for one job. There had recently been large layoffs at two local major workplaces so a large spike in job hunters.

It took days to go through the cvs and cover letters and around 90% were totally unsuitable for the role.

It's a shame because now we tend to work directly with colleges and unis to recruit entry level positions, and IME some of the best and most loyal workers we've had have been more mature people who have changed career.

it is better than the old system, handy havinf everythinf linked and helped me get interviews but my target set was way too high. I think it was something like 40 jobs a week, 100 actions, talking to friends who were also using it but had no work experience their searches were set at 11 jobs per wee and 20 actions.

I was applying for jobs i was underqualified for, i just needed a part time minimum wage or not far off job but to hit my targets i had to apply for them which would have pissed off employer's having to weed through all the applicant's.

I found a few of the courses helpful but on talking to the tutor he said the problem he has is the variety of people they send. He could have people who have no computer skills mixed with professionals. The professionals would have to hang back whilst they waited for the others who could probably do the week course in a day.if everyone was of the same ability.

The professionals could probably do the course in a day that should have said

absolutely stupid and a complete waste of time.
When DH was out of work, he had to apply for 6 jobs per fortnight to get his JSA. One fortnight he applied for 2 jobs in the first week and 4 in the second-and got told off as it should be 3 per week.Most of the time he struggled to find 6 jobs to apply for.We kept a record of the jobs he applied for-over 350 and 99% of them never had the decency to even reply.yet he had to keep applying for these jobs to get JSA.

The jobcentre is a pain in the ass. Expecting people to apply for so many jobs a week and sanctioning people for applying for jobs that they are not suitable for or not applying for enough jobs when there are no new jobs.

Also they expect people to sign into their accounts on sundays, christmas day, bank holidays all when the jobcentre and library are closed and that is your only way to go online.

My sister has to leave her job when she was younger. She was training to be a hairdresser and loved it until she developed sever allergies to most of the chemicals and products used. She was devastated but signed on to get money while looking for something else. Despite telling the job centre several times why she'd had to leave they kept making her apply for cleaning jobs. She couldn't use any of the cleaning products and is also allergic to latex!

Can anyone tell me if I have imagined the restricting your search for the first three months thing? Obviously I hope never to have to find out, but if I ever needed to claim I cant imagine they would ignore your experience completely?

I'm a solicitor and have had two brief periods of unemployment. On both ocassions I was told I could concentrate on legal jobs and those similar to my profession for 13 weeks then after that I had to apply for anything. I was actually applying for anything as I just wanted a job but funnily enough the 'lowly' admin roles I was applying for never contacted me. I appreciate it could have got to the point where people just have to apply for anything but I agree it is pointless about applying for roles you have no hope in getting. I had one advisor insisting, only 10 days after I signed on, that I had to apply for a family solicitor job because it is a solicitor job. I specialise in employment law, I have no bloody idea about family law!!! That went in one ear and out the other.

num - I was 20 weeks pregnant when I signed on the second time (that was the advisor telling me to apply for the family solicitor job), he was quite strict and insisting that I apply for maternity cover roles, again, explaining to him that I cannot complete the contract given that I would be leaving their employment approx 16 weeks later went in one ear and out the other. As it turned out I managed to secure a short term temp role (which are rare). You get put in maternity allowance at 29 weeks.

If anyone is doing it now the quickest way i found to do it is to have an indeed, jobsite and total jobs account set up, when you apply for a job it says you have submitted an application, you can then copy that text and paste it into universal job match.

I was signing on for JSA and had a job was just awaiting paperwork to start a job that worked for me and childcare. I still had to apply for jobs when I had no intention of taking any of them as I was waiting to start a job.

I was also spoke to like a piece of dirt till the women knew I had a job.

Luna I'm a solicitor too! Relocated to live with my husband, found out I was pregnant before I'd secured a role - you can imagine my dismay at discovering that common sense targeted applications are a no!

I've previously had a long spell of unemployment and have also worked in the welfare to work sector and can say hand on heart that the jobcentre are totally useless and even counterproductive in lots of cases. They have zero interest in actually taking an active interest in helping their customers achieve employment, they treat every customer with suspicion and disdain, they're often judgemental and many of the advisors take pleasure in using the sanction process as a punitive tool on a whim even though in many cases (certainly in the past) that had proved to be illegal.

There needs to be a MAJOR overhaul of the jobcentre philosophy and approach to how they deal with the unemployed. Mostly the advisors are administrators and have little experience of recruitment, understanding of training needs or of the current state of the job market in their area or nationwide. Why not take an approach where staff can act as part recruitment consultant and part mentor? Why not try to attract professional staff who can forge decent links with local business and skills match customers with the work that's out there? Why spend millions on external companies like A4E and Maximus to provide such things (and not always in a great way as they have shareholders to please above all else) when they could do it themselves? How about teaching staff there that living on meager benefits is HARD and that a certain amount of empathy is required for the role?

It was hard enough about 5-6 years ago when I was out of work for a lengthy spell and humiliating enough to present myself to the job centre to these people deeming me less than worthless. Now it seems like it's even more of a nightmare for the unemployed, being made to jump through MORE pointless hoops than ever before, and even worse for employers attempting to recruit staff capable of filling vacancies. The box ticking culture is worse than ever it seems, the culture of the jobcentre even more hostile.

It's a shite state of affairs that's for sure.

Restricting your search would normally mean that you could look for a job in a specific area you have experience in and say about 4 travel time. After three months they can make you apply for any job, any hours, any pay in any area depending on the whim of your adviser. I've heard that you can be asked to increase the travel distance up to 90m each way too.

was on it for about 8 weeks but was never told I could restrict my search (they were bloody useless) and was told I had to apply for everything

I glad I am not alone, I think the sanctions are ridiculously for the most part as they are generally punishing people for the shit job market!!

YANBU and it is totally the JC and NOT the applicants fault. If they don't apply for job they're specifically told to apply for they get sanctioned. It's a waste of time fr you be them and you both know it but they're given little choice.

The laughable thing is I've had perfectly qualified people tell me 'your all right, I only applied because I had to to get my JSA' they then proceed to apply to 3 jobs a week through us.

I try to tell the job centre that this candidate has declined an offer of pre-screen and we have a number of suitable roles for them, in a an industry with a massive skills shortage, and the job centre can't do anything.

I've also had JSA candidates not turn up to trials that the job centre knew about and had given money for travel - again the job centre couldn't/ wouldn't do anything.

Absolutely. And it's a disgraceful waste of employers' time.

Though I did like the candidate for a job at our office who had clearly been made to apply by the job centre. In answer to the question about salary expectations he put "astronomical".