The job market is the worst it's been in my memory?

[deeleyj]

Aibu to think the job market is the worst it's been in my memory?

It's brutal out there.

I feel completely stuck in a job I hate because a) there's not much out there b) companies I fancy are making constant cuts c) the jobs that are there pay half what I'm on now d) each job that's left has about 100 applicants e) hiring freezes in my industry

Will it ever get better? Or is this it? Is this a knock on from Covid? Or AI?

I'm feeling really awful about it and just feel completely stuck. People around me saying I should be grateful. All my mates in my company have been made redundant over the last year. I'm just keeping my head down.

It's not just my sector. My town had a huge employer and used to employ half the town. I just searched their website, not a single open role.

I read a story the other day about a lady applying for a dentistry degree, straight A student... didn't get a place as there just isn't the funding or places available.

I swear it's never been this bad and i just can't see it getting better

I think there are tonnes and tonnes of jobs about tbh! My struggle is earning more than I do now for a similar role , I’d need a significant promotion to make a move worthwhile. But if I didn’t have a job and needed one there are LOADS.

My industry has loads of vacancies, and all paid well 🤷🏼‍♀️

Practically every liveried vehicle I see has a “we are recruiting” sign, all sorts of sectors.

Where are you?

What's that @JustFrustrated ...

This must be very area or sector dependent as my employer generally has about a dozen jobs open at various levels and there is no talk of any redundancies

It's really bad for corporate and professional jobs. Conversely there are massive shortages in lower-paid areas such as healthcare, caring and hospitality. We get buses constantly cancelled due to lack of drivers, and bin collections missed due to lack of staff, we have local pubs that have had to close not from lack of custom (they were constantly booked out for food) but lack of staff. You can't get a builder or plumber or electrician for love nor money. I think we will eventually see a societal correction where jobs that are currently undervalued and where we have big labour shortages will get valued more, and pen-pushing and desk-jockeying will be valued a little less.

I started a new job recently but the months leading up to it were brutal. The market is so dead compared to when I was looking a year ago.

Last year I got daily calls from recruiters, this year only one, and she said that senior roles in my industry are just nonexistent right now.

No it's not the worst it's ever been. Many people from the 80s are still alive

I'm assuming the OP is young.

Very much depend on the sector.

I think though that there are a lot of employers out there offering rubbish wages and expecting people to do the job of 3 employees...then complaining they can't hire and retain staff.

I don’t think it’s worse than it’s ever been and as a PP noted there are many many entry level and minimum wage jobs.

It does feel difficult in the corporate/white collar world at the moment and as someone who is trying to move roles in quite a specific niche I am finding it hard. But I don’t think that’s true across the board.

I work in scientific publications. Pharma. Healthcare PR. Med Education etc.

My last job was more tech related but got made redundant.

Been doing this for around 20 years

It's bloody awful.

I want out really. A fresh start in a new sector.

I'm in the south and I'd love remote work ideally or in my town. I don't want to commute to London.

I think there are plenty of jobs, but employers are unrealistic about what they can expect of candidates and ask for the Moon on a stick, as well as refusing to provide training, and don't want to pay fair salaries.

So they'll say they can't get people, but the people are there, if they'd pay them properly and/or train them to do the job. Employers are very bad at seeing transferable skills.

However, I suspect publishing is an area where the number of jobs has actually reduced massively.

And don't you just see it, when you read a book and see how badly it has been edited (or not at all).

That’s probably the issue. Most people in the south want to remote work and not commute to London. Lots of companies are getting people back into the office. There’s loads of competition for the fully remote jobs. There are lots of jobs out there though.

Things have definitely tightened up in a lot of sectors compared with a year or so ago but there’s still buoyancy. I think it’s limiting yourself to remote or very local work which is going to be affecting how many roles you see and how many candidates you’re competing with for those roles: an increasing number of employers are now insisting on hybrid working rather than fully remote.

I’m having a terrible time getting hired despite decades of experience. Because it’s not just experience anymore, or even interviewing well. There are many other factors that employers consider when looking at candidates.

Publishing of all kinds, including academic publishing, is in dire straits - the industry has not worked out how to make revenues in a digital world and academic publishing is slowly coming under pressure to be forced to make more publicly funded research freely available.

So I think a sectoral issue plus if your town is dominated by one employer and that employer is not thriving, then it's a high risk place for finding a job given lack of other options.

You don't want to commute to London or you really can't? Can you do a few days a week? Would open up many more options

Look at your LinkedIn profile and update to match the jobs you're looking for. Pharma is booming ime although Brexit can't have helped matters in the UK.

Do you have a technical background? Or did you go into scientific publishing from a publishing background?

If the former, have a look at a more technical role? Or a Comms role in a technical company? Especially regulated sectors, they are usually mandated to share a certain amount of information so have reasonably large Comms teams. Especially now with the Net Zero battleground.

I have a life sciences degree and just sort of fell into it. I'm on the account management side so not much science going on.

The tech side of things again fell into sort of by accident.

Pharma and healthcare comms/marketing type roles still seem fairly widely advertised in London.

There is a growing bio/life sciences hub at Canary Wharf and one under development by Guys hospital. And plans to convert one of the towers at Euston to life sciences labs/offices.

So quite a lot going on in that sector. You would likely need to be in office 3 days a week though at least.

What sort of role do you currently have?

Ok then a quick look at Indeed suggests lots of account manager related roles in Pharma/life sciences in London, some of which say they are hybrid.

https://g.co/kgs/W9w1tLX (Hybrid)
https://g.co/kgs/rjdjuvG (Hybrid)
https://g.co/kgs/HYi33Bi
https://g.co/kgs/tNssW6a
https://g.co/kgs/JP4px4x

Sales Account Manager, Life Sciences - Southeast, UK https://g.co/kgs/m3qNGka (home based but 60pc travel)

Hard to know what level you are looking at etc of course - but there does seem to be a reasonable number of mid level roles being advertised in London at least. How competitive they are may be another issue.

It was a great deal worse in the early 1980s. There were 3 million people unemployed and very few jobs.