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.

*The 'who you know' and nepotism model is rife again."

This is very true. DH gets lots of work because he's a known face (tech crew in stage production).
DS just about to graduate in Cyber Security so hopeful he will get something but he says there's a glut of people. If anyone knows specifically what areas he could extend into...

@BoredZeldasorry, just seen you’ve already replied to this. Can you please share what roles in particular have shortages in your industry and the best way to get into theses positions in terms of training/courses etc

Quite right. What use is a Humanities degree? I really think we've done young people a huge disservice by making 2 bit degrees that don't lead to actual jobs available to everyone. Where is the natural career path after a Humanities degree?

Me too struggling. I’m in pharmaceutical and medtech industry with 25 years of key account management and business development as well as 5 years coaching and sales training experience for large corporations. I was made redundant last November and apart from one assessment centre where I was pipped at the post by a better candidate on the day I have had no other interviews apart from some HR screening one which then never materialise into next stage.
i have considered starting my own consultancy business but I’m not sure there is enough work out there to make any money.

i can honestly say it’s heart breaking and my mental health is at an all time low. I have enough redundancy money left to support myself for 3 months and after that I am literally skint and I am scared for my future.
I claim job seekers which is £92 a week which does help but runs out in July and my DP doesn’t earn enough to pay the bills. I will probably have to down size our property in order to make ends meet.

I cry on a daily basis

We're competitive for the region, but not significantly above our counterparts. In my industry everyone pretty much pays the same.

Mine’s been pretty useful. It’s indicative of a trained mind, capable of research and understanding and communicating complex ideas. It’s been the minimum qualification for the jobs I’ve held for most of my career. When we reduce education to vocational training we start to lose our soul.

@Whitegrenache I’m so sad for you - that skillset would seem to me very employable indeed- is pharma that much down? I can’t think it’s AI issues -

I'm similar to you OP, been self-employed for almost 30 years, almost all my working life. While I do still have a steady stream of work, I'm always worried that might change, and there's also a problem with pay not increasing - so what was a reasonably well-paid job, now isn't. For this and other reasons (DC leaving home etc) I've been looking around for interesting PT jobs so I could be employed 1-2 days a week, have a bit more security, get out of the house etc.

I think I have a bunch of transferable skills, I'm very experienced at particular skills and I'm used to working really hard and being very efficient. But nothing I've applied for has got me anywhere - not a single interview. It's a bit humbling/humiliating. It could be partly age discrimination, but also like you say there are probably plenty people who tick all the boxes - so even if I could do the job well I'm way down the list.

At the same time, in everyday life I'm astonished how crap a lot of people are at their jobs, and get away with it. Not all of course but a LOT of people. And I often hear or hear of employers who can't find people with the right basic abilities and attitude. As PPs say it must be dependent on the field.

I think there are a fair old maelstrom of issues at the moment - many industry’s will batten down the hatchway any signs of instability out there and the loopiness of some of the stuff coming out the US will have set warning bells off in lots of sectors -then there are industry’s that have been badly hit by Brexit regardless of what others feel about Brexit- this is a fact- we did a lot of mail order direct to consumer and it killed a lot of our EU business on D2C - simple fact is that punters are being charged a handling fee charge in lots of cases upon receiving for even small things making it non viable for them to buy that way - whereas ironically I’ve not been charged this way round receiving here from EU - is it fair - no- but if we can’t be arsed to implement it then it seems other EU country’s can and do. This has made some industry’s more reliant on formal overseas distribution which is less profitable and margins are massively cut- another industry that Brexit has hit badly is the conference/exhibitions business- my friend works in that- difficult now for overseas exhibitors particularly from EU to ‘bring stuff over’ and a lot of international conferences are simply holding them elsewhere- there’s a lot of peripheral business round that industry, printing/catering/marketing etc - and if less events are happening then these services are being used less-

then we have issues like digital marketing- still effective but in my opinion not as effective as it was due to saturation on social media

issues too on things like journalism due to AI generated stuff and clickbait rubbish and less physical sales in print media.

the thing to do with employers NI - personally I think this was a stupid move , it’s given a lot of companies who were doing perfectly fine an absolute excuse to cut costs, keep profits up for shareholders and get rid of people. Personally I would have ignored the press and stuck 1% on tax and 1% on VAT .

I would also say there are issues in things like recruitment -it’s become a lot easier to reach people directly via mainstream sites without paying out huge lump sums and when there’s a ton of candidates finding people is less of an issue apart from very very specialist roles- where you may need headhunters to entice people from current roles

At the same time, in everyday life I'm astonished how crap a lot of people are at their jobs, and get away with it. Not all of course but a LOT of people. And I often hear or hear of employers who can't find people with the right basic abilities and attitude. As PPs say it must be dependent on the field.

This always amazes me as well. My DH tells me about all the shit he has to sort out to stop his company losing millions, quite often because people want to sign contracts without looking at them properly or running them past a lawyer and I wonder how the hell they keep their jobs. I've come to the conclusion that it's just very difficult to sack them! And they won't leave voluntarily because they get away with it and they know that another employer might not be quite so lenient.

Not so much for me right now but my son is about to enter the job market and I'm frightened for his future. No-one is hiring.

I've been self-employed for over 20 years, @Sorryagain. Very niche area which hasn't tanked yet but have been told since day 1 my industry has obsoletion built in. Have tried at various points over the years to find salaried employment but no luck. Now mid 40s and I'm sure my chances are decreasing with every year of age.

I do wonder as well whether is a kind of prejudice or suspicion against the long-term self-employed trying to enter the workforce, the worry that they won't take well to being told what to do. 😕

Yep people talk about the current state of things. It’s pretty bad rn

Insane - most people I speak to (across a variety of sectors, finance, accounting, construction, retail, mechanics) are struggling like hell to find quality people to hire… I genuinely don’t recognise the job market talked about on MN.

Agreed. I know some people doing well - therapists, tradesmen but no one in white collar jobs

what line of work are you in op?
i have to say im employed atm but have been thinking about the past few years of perhaps freelancing (building it up part time). Im just undecided.

Possibly. But it’s just not true - I feel like I’ve had to be constantly accountable and at the beck and call of lots of clients at once - and you have no room for slack as you’re as good as your last gig, sort of thing

Lots of vacancies in social work???!!!!

I have a degree too. I'm well educated but I've never used it in my life. My career success has all been based on gumption, pushing myself forward, confidence, entry level jobs and learning quickly etc. Unless a degree leads somewhere, students are largely being set up for disappointment.

This is the experience at my place too, they couldn't find a suitable mat cover for me. The guy they got is lovely, but he doesn't have my qualifications.

My line manager is tearing his hair out because I'm on a FTC, and they won't confirm me in the post even though they NEED me in the role.

I'm confident they will fix, but it's daft not to lock in someone with the skills before they have to look elsewhere.

My advice to any job hunter is to get a new qualification related to your existing experience as the quickest fix - mine was self-studied and only cost £250 for the exam.

Late to this thread but I completely agree about how tough it is at the moment. The only way I've even been able to score interviews is via a recruitment consultant. Good ones are hard to find (like estate agents!) but this company is great, so if you are in the construction sector I'm happy to send you their details via a message.

Also I had to really really boost my CV, in an embarrassing selling yourself way which took me out of my comfort zone! I used the JobScan website where you upload your CV and the job description of the job you like and it highlights how you can improve your CV. That's helped me land 2 interviews recently - previously I had zero interest after submitting applications.

A few years ago I didn't need to do any applications, I had job offers coming out of my ears!

What sort of roles?? I might be interested!

I had a career break of about four years, then decided to switch career paths last year.. and while I am now working in the field I want to be working in, I'm on a 0 hours contract and working 12-15 hours a week when I would prefer to be working about 20 hours and in a permanent / fixed term role. The permanent / guaranteed hours seem to be like hen's teeth unfortunately. So while I have work it's proving more difficult than I anticipated to find a secure contract.. and I imagine there are a lot of us in the same boat. I really wish we could do away with 0 hours contracts..

That might be the case but it's no good if you have no skills or experience in any of those industries! My industry has absolutely tanked over the past 2 years but for so many people that is what they are great at. I know retraining is obviously possible but it's never just a straightforward option.

I work in the voluntary sector. The NI increase has been terrible for us. The only options to cover increased employment costs are recruitment freezes, redundancies and halting project delivery. No idea why the government thinks that will lead to economic growth.