Anyone else worried about the terrible job market?

[Sorryagain]

I’ve been self employed throughout my professional life - over 30 years. I was in one profession, then broadened out and added more skills and generated a lot of work in another industry.

Both industries are fucked. Tons of redundancies, no hires. Barely any contract work. Lots of people looking. LinkedIn is a cesspit.

I am used to the hustle - but I’ve never known it so hard, nigh on impossible, to get work.

Ive been applying for permanent roles I think I could do - but even with my tons of transferrable skills, such is the market that there are enough people who perfectly fit the job description that I don’t get a look in.

Im lucky in that I have a partner who works - but I want to work. I’m seriously terrified of how bad things are - it’s never been like this for me, ever.

I just wanted to see if others are facing this?

And because I think it’s a combo of AI and cost of living/economics, I can’t see how things will improve.

I can relate, and understand the worry and frustration. The job market is incredibly tough.

Things I would recommend:
1)Reach out to your network as much as you can, so you can have a boost from referrals and find out about open roles before they land with the public
2)Aside from LinkedIn/Job boards, keep an eye directly on company career pages and apply direct
3)Try and build a public profile on LinkedIn by posting about topics you have expertise on. This builds confidence in your skills when people look you up.
4)Use the time you have now to build on skills you see you are missing and that figure in the requirements of roles you are interested in.

It is perfectly normal for job hunting to take months in this climate, so you do have to be patient and you're lucky you can afford to be thanks to your partner income, so that's a blessing! The "perfect fit" will hopefully come for you too, and in the meanwhile you can invest your mental energy in getting ready to find it and hit it with the best application and interview. Good luck!

It’s really horrible. I’ve never before struggled to get a job. At the very beginning of 2020 I was made redundant, and received three job offers very quickly.

But now, I’m not even getting a response, let alone an interview!

I’ve noticed this for the past 2-3 years and now it’s affecting one of my DCs who’s looking for a proper, full-time job. Another DC is still a student and ok with the odd jobs at gigs, but I also worry for after graduation. Both in areas where AI does a lot of their work.

It is a crap jobs market out there.

I would add use chat gpt to critique your covering letter. Not write it, or re write it, but to check for tone, spelling and grammar.

I work freelance and haven’t had a single enquiry since October. I have contacted my client base and contacts several times, nudging for work, but nada. They assure me they haven’t gone to anybody else, there just isn’t any work to pass on.

I have been doing this since 2013 and never been out of work for such a prolonged period. Not going to lie, I’m really scared at this point

I think this is a great and timely post @Sorryagain and I am also worried.

In the sector I am in (marketing, comms) we are often one of the first lines to be cut from the budget. Senior people no longer required, hybridise the job so that one or two people on £45k can do the work as generalist roles.

It's a tough time at the moment, Some great advice already on this thread though.

The past year has been the worst ever in 23 years of freelancing for me (barring a major hiccup during covid), but things do seem to be picking up slightly now. Fingers crossed.

Had friends round last weekend, 4 different industries between us, and all 4 industries in a really bad way for different reasons. Not good.

Yes, same boat here.

I'm really scared - not only has my regular pipeline of work completely dried up, but my client list - whilst I don't work with them all every year, they will each crop up, compliment each other on rotation - has died. They've each got a reason not to be in a position to hire.

I honestly don't see how things will pick up; Ai isn't going anywhere. This country's finances aren't improving. Global issues still exist. If anything, I see things getting worse

It really does feel like work is broken for a lot of roles.

I'm not facing your circumstances, and sorry you're going through a tough time. But I do feel very trapped doing what I do as it's basically impossible to move industry or role as, like you say, employers don't care about transferable skills. The market is so poor, they have their pick of candidates.

i have a job
my dc all have jobs, of which I am really grateful
i have an ex colleague who is really struggling and i am forever reading posts here about people struggling to find work

It’s industry dependent. I’m in finance and receive around 5 job requests from headhunters a day - I’m not looking, I’m on mat leave!

I’m self employed and new business clients has completed dried up, no new clients for over a year now, never known it so bad. Not only no new clients, but a steady stream of clients giving up, many had been just about surviving since lockdowns but eventually giving up because no sign of economic recovery. No one has confidence in the economy to grow their businesses or start a new business, so we’re definitely looking at recession.

I’m currently recruiting for a part time post. I’ve been inundated with applicants who have been freelancing for years.

My fear is that they see the role as a temporary fix until their freelance work picks up.

Your post has made me think again about whether to take a punt on someone has freelance on their cv and hope that they’re looking for long term stability rather than a stop gap.

Oh, that's an interesting perspective. I definitely think lots of freelancers would switch to a part time post if the conditions were right. I've often worked long term fixed contracts, which have run for years (amongst other work), so it's similar.

Maybe I should message you direct and find out what the job is that you're recruiting for! 🙂

I'd be really interested to know what industries you all work in. My DH is a freelance video editor and work is very sparse and has been for the last year or so.

I’m hoping I’ll be OK (finance) but my company are being ‘abolished’ and there are over 12,000 colleagues alongside me with no idea what our future holds. A lot of those people won’t have skills that are hugely transferable. Some will, but a fair few will not. It’s going to be a bun fight.

Sorry to everyone finding yourself in tough circumstances. This reminds me to be grateful for what I have whilst it lasts.

I left a permanent job that was making me ill for a contract role nearly 2 years ago - I naively thought I'd get some relevant experience from the contract and pivot into a better perm job. WRONG! The contract finished (company was closing down so no perm opportunities) and I spent most of last year unemployed except one well paid but crazy travel contract role which at least allowed me to buffer up my savings despite the fact that I wasn't getting any relevant work experience for my CV . Then 5 months of unemployment where there were literally no jobs at my level - I'm a qualified professional with 25 years experience in my field but didn't feel like it! I nearly took a more junior role but held out for another role, still contract but at least senior level, which I'm fervently hoping will go perm as I really don't want to get back out there again for a very long time.

Something is wrong when even qualified and experienced people can't find work. I'm just glad I got a foothold back in as I was beginning to feel like I'd lost my career and no one would employ me.

DH was made redundant last Oct and he's just managed to find a new job, but it was soul destroying and is a £35k pay cut. Whilst he was redundant I had lots of people tell me about friends also struggling to find work.

In the past six months I know 4 people who have been made redundant. Three were delighted, large payouts as all had worked for same companies for 25 years plus and two chose that moment to retire, late 50’s and ok financially. One hated her job and has walked in to a role straight away, a much lower paid one but she had enough of her job and it’s enough money. The other one was made redundant at the end of last week.

As a nation we are at what’s considered full employment. There are nearly a million jobs available in the U.K. In my industry there is a serious skills shortage, we have been advertising jobs for a couple of years and there are just not enough of us to go around.

Anyone saying the jobs market is dire at the moment, clearly hasn’t been around very long because it has been way worse than this before.

Sorry to hear this. Is it worse than 2011/12? I was contracting then and was out of work for eight months, the market was as flat as a pancake.

Employers want to have their cake and eat it too. They want skills and experience but don't want to pay a premium for either. They want full time (++) rather than part time because of the fixed costs of employment. They want everyone back in the office all the time because they don't trust their staff.

I recruit into Digital Roles in my Org … we can’t find people of the right skill level and experience

My DH was made redundant in September 2023 and he didn't get a job until July 2024.

It was terrible made literally 000s of applications and heard nothing back from most of them.
Usually he gets approached all the time about different roles and there was nothing.
So crushing.

My DH was made redundant before Christmas and has only just found another role. He applied for a lot of posts, did a lot of interviews and ended up taking at 20k paycut. This time last year he was being frequently head hunted. It is a hard market out there.