Jobs are getting more competitive and wages don't match effort

[mumofthreehundred]

Is it just me or are jobs getting crazy competitive these days?

I lost out on an entry level job today because I didn't have enough experience. I'm a graduate, first class degree , with tonnes of experience just in a different sector. The job was so poorly paid there would be no national insurance. I was interviewed by a panel four people and spent hours filling in the longest form.

I just can't find much else out there that pays enough to cover my current situation (3 children in nursery, yes I had surprise twins)

There is so much competition these days that you can't afford to rock boat and ask for more money or flex working.

I'm trying to move out of my current sector but it just seems impossible these days.

I don't have time or money to retrain. See above for family situation!

I am sure I remember a time 15-20 years ago when it was so much easier to get a job. Drop your cv in, head to a recruitment agency etc. You could pick a professional career and there was a clear route in. I'm seeing a lot of jobs that are minimum wage and they should be more. Others require lots and lots of volunteering before you could be considered for a paid job. Or some extra qualification that costs a few grand to get.

Aibu or is the job situation getting out of hand for people like me?

YANBU. People are expecting degrees for very basic jobs now, and paying minimum wage into the bargain. Employees are being exploited and wages seem to have gone down

Yup, I seen a job advertise for a degree & 3 years experience for a minimum wage job. Insane

I don’t agree. I’ve just advertised a really good job on a relevant website where usually get a good response, market rate salary and I’ve had 1, yes 1 application.

YANBU

It's soul destroying

Salaries definitely haven't caught up; I see roles comparable to jobs I had 10-12 years ago paying the same salary as then.
I've just finished my degree (mature student) and have a place on a public sector graduate scheme; the starting salary is £1300 per annum more than the same scheme in 2008, and the holiday allowance has reduced by a week.

I feel completely exploited as a graduate working for just over minimum wage. I haven't had a pay rise in 17 years, whilst being expected to work harder and harder. At least half of my team suffer from work related stress. I should have left long ago but my options are very limited.

Pay has gone up for very in demand jobs -- ones that few people can do but for other jobs wages have stagnated for ages where I live. I stopped working 14 years ago (trailing spouse, etc) and when looking at returning a couple years ago found wages were the same!! Similar jobs wages had not gone up in over ten years!!

And everyone I know that I asked how they got their job the answer was ' I knew someone'. I kid you not. Every single one was through having an insider. I went to the second career centre and they asked me 'who do you know who can get you a job?' I said, 'why would I come here if I knew someone to get me a job?' It was ridiculous.

Applesbananaspears maybe share it here?

This is possibly the only thing that should improve after Brexit.

UK employers have become ludicrously demanding in a market of unlimited applicants. Wages have stagnated in many sectors too, at least partly for the same reason.

I agree with you that you now need to be far more qualified/experienced to get a job, but I don't think this is necessarily down to high expectations of employers.

I am recruiting at work at the moment. I think the advert is similar to many I've done before, and my expectations re applicants remains the same. I have received 4 times the normal number of applications, and a good half of them are far more qualified/experiences than I was expecting. I have to interview the best of the applications; to ignore the best and interview then ones at the level I expected would be unfair to the higher qualified/experienced applicants. And I have to employ the best at the interviews; how could I do anything else?!

So I am probably about to employ someone I more qualified/experienced Than I would have during equivalent recruitment a few years ago. This is a job where 5 years ago I would have expected a degree plus maybe 5 years experience, and I have applicants with an MBA and 15 - 20 years experience applying for it.

I have no idea what the answer is for those who have "enough" qualifications/experience but are beaten to the job by those with more, but equally it would be perverse of me not to take the applicant with the most of offer my company.

happyasasandboy You shouldn't hire over qualified candidates, that's a mistake. Sure it will make life easier for you now, but they will get bored very quickly, and possibly not take the role too seriously.

Are they more qualified than you'd expected or over qualified for the role?

Yes it's terrible. I'm in Australia and every job advert even for entry level reads

Minimum 3 years experience
Degree
Qualified in xyz software

I've got 15 years of professional and administration experience. I laugh at these ads looking for someone with a degree to do a job that 15 years ago I was hired to do and shock trained on the job! Nobody wants to spend anytime training anyone or putting any effort in. They want you to 'hit the ground running'.

And, I can't even get the jobs I am trained in because I'm not 21 and I'd cost too much.

I've had to take work cleaning. I have 2 diplomas, loads of experience and great references. I can't even get an interview.

Glad it's not just me then!

Take being a police officer... they want more qualifications and you to have been a volunteer officer. I just can't afford to work for free. Nor can I afford to work for £20k. That's less than I started on a decade ago.

Where I live... south east town, offices are being turned into flats because businesses don't want to move here. Sure if you want to work in a cafe or a shop you'd have a shot (with a million others). Of if you happened to be trained in law, teaching, medicine etc, I'm sure you'd be fine.

I can't really commute too far as all the nurseries open at 8 and finish at 6. I'll never make it back in time if I work in the next town or in London.

The market rate for my line of work has been stagnant for 10 years whilst inflation has gone up massively in that time.

I thought it was just my profession but it seems may be it's everywhere. It's depressing, 10 years ago if seemed a lot easier.

My income has been falling for the last four years whilst the other half’s has been stagnant in real terms. Cost of living however keeps going up, we don’t have a bad income and we still manage to save but the things we hoped we would be doing by now keep getting further away.

That said there is no shortage of work for either of us, but somehow employers have managed to push rates down.

You shouldn't hire over qualified candidates, that's a mistake. Sure it will make life easier for you now, but they will get bored very quickly, and possibly not take the role too seriously.

Please don't think like this. I was that person. Over qualified for the job I work in, they hired me anyway. Although i'm technically over qualified it's what I want to do. The pay may not be great, but the hours, work environment and opportunities far outweigh any qualifications.

I’ve found this, I think even 4 years ago it was easier and the pay was better. What is causing it? Is it more choice for employers, more people applying and accepting a lower wage? supply and demand? Cost of living is going up, I don’t know how people can afford to live on these low wages with high rents and never being able to afford their own property

Too many people going to university so they have to look for jobs that would be done by less qualified but equally able people in the past.

Immigration - more people for employers to choose from and often prepared to work for low wages.

This is possibly the only thing that should improve after Brexit.

UK employers have become ludicrously demanding in a market of unlimited applicants.

I disagree.

Think about all the public sector employees bound by pay scales set by collective bargaining done by unions. There is no leeway for managers to increase or decrease pay on order to adapt to labour supply changes - work of a certain calibre equals a certain grade which equals a certain pay.

Also pay for a lot of public sector employees didn't go up for years and when it did it was way below inflation. That has little to do with labour supply and all to do with ideologically-driven austerity.

This has always been the case where I live. My mind was blown when I started using Mumsnet and discovered that in the rest of the UK people were able to get jobs, even professional level jobs, using a CV. Even as a 15 year old applying for a Saturday job I was used to having to fill in a lengthy application form.

My current job, which is basically an entry level job, had an application form that was 16 pages long. Eight competency based questions to answer, 300 words for each question. Then a set of practical tests, then an interview with a panel. But that's been fairly standard throughout my working life.

Salaries have definitely stagnated though.

I've used this example before on a different thread, but I'm job hunting right now and have a degree in English Literature and a foreign language. I found a job advertised by a popular fashion retailer for a customer service role where one of the requirements was the candidate must be fluent in the same language I'd studied. Great, I thought. The salary was £16000. Less than the customer service role I'd just left where I didn't need to have any particular skills, let alone be bilingual.

Wow £16000 how do you live on that? Rent where I live is £800 a month for a 1 bed flat.

Was chatting to DH about this. Jobs in the IT industry are booming. They're constantly looking for developers and other technical roles. Problem is they're not something everyone had the mindset to do. Well paid though. Paying £40k straight out of uni up to £60k with 5 years of experience.

£16, 000? My 20 year old is getting £29k equivalent for a summer internship. We pay £27k for graduate entry jobs.

Wow £16000 how do you live on that? Rent where I live is £800 a month for a 1 bed flat.

You don't live, you survive. Wages are being subsidised by tax credits / uc, an unlimited supply of cheap labour and its an employers market. They ask more of you than is reasonable, additional hours, employing fewer staff so you have to work faster and harder. Minimum legal breaks unpaid where possible,all of which contributes to poor mental health.
There is an expectation that we live to work rather than work to live and constantly told via the media that we are not productive enough.