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

Wiley’s in Chichester? No need to reply if that would be outing

When I read your post I wondered if you were in biotech. So during Covid, Biotech got sexy....loads of investment in the US. Loads of companies floated on NASDAQ with unproven technologies for way more than they were worth. The investment companies got seriously burned. Now they will only invest in later stage, proven technologies. This reluctance spread to the UK and until the US gets less fearty - will still be an issue here. This lack of investment means massive redundancies in a huge swathe of the industry. Even if your company is not investment funded, your customers may be, or suppliers. Is all a ripple down from some really bad investments. Hopefully will be over soon - but yes, worst I have ever seen in our industry.

My dn has a PhD in psychology. Shes managed to find a job,

But loads of her friends/colleagues with same qualifications can’t.

Meanwhile we have work force and population of young people who really need psychological help..,..

Manufacturing

In my company alone we are currently looking for

CAD Designer -
Internal key account manager
Business Development manager
Commercial director
X12 manufacturing staff
Director of operations

And I know we're not unusual

Yes pre COVID remote was rare now with people taking the p it's being reduced again

In my sector employers are saying they can't get people, but salaries are not increasing in line with cists of living. I see more people downsizing to minimum wage jobs and doing as little work as they can.

Can I refer you to the early 1980s? It's a paradise nowadays in comparison.

We have so many vacancies in our area for professional roles, e.g. engineers, project managers, specialist advisors etc. So I guess we aren’t seeing this as much.

@unsync

I wasn't born until the early 80s

My mum is always going on about how terrible the 80s were and I do understand the work situation I really do, not to mention high mortgage interest

But

My mum worked in a shop part time
My dad had a job in engineering

They had the pick of houses in my town. Including ones that are now worth close to a £1 million.

Now someone that was an engineer and a shop worker would never ever ever get approved for that same house.

Something is very wrong with the world today.

We are at a stage now where it's getting to a point that I can't get myself a minimum wage job... we would not afford to live otherwise. I need to earn £40-50k really, minimum

And that rules out so many jobs.

It's as bad as it has been for 20 years yes, in London anyway .
Brexit, cost of living issues and two important elections this year means uncertainty and a lack of appetite to spend money, grow, invest, hire.... People are still getting jobs though. Do the basics correctly. Do not rely on AI to improve your applications, it doesn't. Keep plugging away

agree, I am just being made redundant and can work max 20h during school hours. Both DC have disabilities and no access to childcare. Nobody wants people like me. I think certain sectors and are much better esp for job seekers without barriers to employment but I never found it as hard and impossible as now to get a job..

HAHAHA no. Try graduating in 2009. There are so many jobs now, we're struggling to recruit.

It wasn't. There were millions of people working fully or partially remotely in 2019.

Absolutely the salaries are the issue in
my sector too - there are a lot of jobs at low salaries, but not so many at a decent wage.

The exact job/same company I had 15 years ago is being advertised atm with the salary I was on then, but nothing costs what it did 15 years ago!

Many of these companies also require applicants of the more junior roles to live in, or a commutable distance of, London - but very few of them pay the salary needed to cover rents or commutes.
(I have no idea how anyone is affording to take on these roles, possibly by working multiple jobs)

Have you actually been applying for new jobs? Your posts are unclear. You mention currently working in publishing but really wanting to get out of it, a life sciences degree, some tech experience, then your last post something about getting a minimum wage job. If you’re scattergunning applications and coming across equally as wishy washy and unclear about what you want to do in your applications, that’s really going to be harming your chances in a competitive market. You need to identify a couple of industries and role areas which really interest you and then focus your attention there when it comes to applications and tailoring your CV. Have you considered attending career or professional forums?

I think it hugely depends on the sector.
I massively struggled to recruit to my team (other than word of mouth because of my reputation) in the last year or so, and similarly when I looked for a new job I had a flood of interviews/offers.

It's similar in DH workplace

(Both of us are public sector, reasonably senior roles)

So the picture seems very varied I think

If you're something like a structural engineer there are plenty of jobs around, especially if you're willing to work in the public sector (with its associated pay limitations). For a long time we weren't training enough engineers in the UK and so were relying on qualified people coming in from the EU, which has now dried up as a result of us telling them they aren't welcome.

I graduated into the 2008 recession which was pretty bad. At the time though I was at least able to find badly paid temp office jobs to keep me going. A lot of those were small or old companies having not quite caught up with the 21st century and paying me to do things like print out emails and type up summaries for senior managers who didn't like computers, or data entry that would have been very easily automated even then. I don't think those jobs exist any more, which means a) there isn't that fall back for people and b) an entry level route into niche industries is gone (which also means those same companies are now complaining there's no staff available with experience in their niche industries!). So yes I would not be surprised if things are worse now. I'm very glad I'm not needing to look for a new job (yet).

Yes, I get that. I don't think my salary will increase much from my current, so I'm making a plan to step away from corporate life in, say, 3-4 years. I'll likely make less money but I can cope with that for the sake of my sanity/family/health.

Have you looked into the veterinary sector?

as for your dental example - medical/dental/vet school has always been very competitive, straight As alone has never guaranteed a place on a course.

It probably depends on the sector but publications doesn’t surprise me

I work in a vaguely similar field/role @deeleyj and recognise your feelings well.

I’ve been quite unhappy in my role for a while but can’t find anything at a similar level that would pay within £10-20k of my current salary. We could stomach the decrease, but I don’t want to.

The only (very few) roles recruiters have contacted me about recently are 100% on-site with no hybrid/remote at all, often paying £20k less than my current salary. As unhappy as I am it wouldn’t make sense to move on for that sort of package.

I’m now in talks with my previous employer about an opening they have. I’d like to go back as I loved it there and it was fully remote, but would probably require a slight drop in salary.

I’m an NHS nurse. Apparently there are thousands of nursing vacancies all over the country and yet if you look at our Trust website there are maybe 1 or 2 nursing vacancies and they are for senior roles with years of experience. Like most things it very much depends on where you live. I’ve also heard that junior posts in IT are few and far between with literally hundreds of applicants.

@ComtesseDeSpair

Good point.

I am a bit lost I admit.

I'm bored in my current role. It's very dull. But when I look outside at starting again in a different job or even different sector. I can't! Because I need training (which costs lots) and I have three little kids so can't just up and move to London for example. I need to be around for them so commuting too far is out the question. Some things just don't pay what I need. Example. One of my jobs I fancy would be working in a school or working for local government but the pay in lots of cases with my experience is very poor.

So then I think. Maybe I just stay in my sector (pharma) but try a different company to refresh things.

I just want to be happy and not feel the Monday dread (which for me starts on Saturdays now) but maybe everyone hates their job or at least most people?!

But that isn't the job market and by the late 80s with ques around the block for the job centre....not just a Tory Advert. Even with two full time managerial mortgages we were faced with such high interest rates people were handing their keys back as it was all of both wages in many cases if you hadn't got a job there were none no picking on commutes or I don't want to work from an office just grateful to get anything....in the NE it was so bad I knew people who walked from Peterlee to Middlesbrough looking for work any work.
I lived in London later it was still bad.

There are plenty of roles around but as others say start asking to working from home or in your home town and you immediately massively reduce your option. It’s a huge exaggeration to say there are no jobs