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'm seeing it from all sides.

I run a small niche firm. Our overheads are soaring, my business rates etc are eye watering. My staffing bill will jump in April. I am working harder than I've ever worked, for less money.

I can't afford "experienced" staff who want salaries that we cannot meet. I know of two large multi office firms which closed this month alone, so their staff will be looking for jobs that don't exist.

When we do advertise, we get endless graduates, all desperately looking for a foot in the door. My ds is about to graduate from an extremely prestigious degree course, and not a single one of his friends has a job yet.

I'm very aware of the challenges AI will bring, and I have a plan, but I think the whole machinery of the UK is grinding to a halt.

@Frostykitty with regards to the graduates, that is what I am hearing from all the parents and employers I know. The scary thing is that it isn't just the UK.

I work in recruitment and have done for decades- can confirm it's a v tough job market at the moment, especially for senior roles.

The NI rises and business rates are a big part of it due to impact on staff costs.

I’m have to ask - how do you learn a trade? Do you need to do a course first then get a job with a firm? Or does it go another way round? And how easy is it to achieve?

There are courses with work experience/placements, or apprenticeship (but you'd have to prove you were worthy of the apprenticeship /more worthy than other applicants), probably by having completed a course to begin with.

There is probably a fair amount of nepotism from those with family/connections in the trade too

Do a paid for course then try to get someone qualified to take you on.

I'm coming up for 60 and am too old to retrain. Our company had a few redundancies recently and those people haven't found jobs, so I'm hoping I'm not next or I'll struggle. And I wouldn't be first choice for low-skilled jobs, when they can pay less to hire young people with more stamina.

I’ve got an interview! I’ve actually got an interview!!!

Me too but I can't work out if it's ageism or 'the world's changed' .I hear youngsters finding it tougher these days. Just my luck it's both harder AND ageism at play. I find that younger managers don't want to manage someone who's got experience, like me. They feel threatened. But if there are no jobs at your current capability level, what do you do ( if out of work)

@FuckoffeeBeforeCoffeereally good luck with that x

The salaries are terrible too. With the minimum wage increase many salaried jobs are not much above as some companies don’t seem to have have increased their wages for some roles in years.

Yeh! So glad. Everything crossed for you.

University isn’t just about getting a job related to one’s degree, it’s also a great experience for a young person who is academically minded and/or into sports. If I had a child, I would definitely pay for them to go to university if that’s what they wanted. Student debt can be minimised with parental help. It’s not all doom and gloom.

Back to the topic of the OP, this is quite a depressing thread. I emigrated from the UK last year to, among other things, improve my career prospects. I plan to return in a few years so I hope the Labour government can turn things round - isn’t that why we voted them in? To mop up the mess, not add to it?!

Oh you sweet summer child....

It’s quite telling of the scarcity mindset that many in the UK have that a salary of £17k a year could be considered acceptable. Call centre jobs we did as teens paid more on a pro-rata basis, circa 2008.

A bit naive. Sorry!

And for £17k a year they seem to expect people to have a degree (Master's preferred), several years' experience and to meet half a dozen niche criteria.

@Crushed23 This is a depressing thread, yes. For sure. But also a useful one.
It's not a thread about positive mindsets to get a job (that's for LinkedIn)
This thread is the anti-LinkedIn. It's highlighting the structural factors contributing to unemployment (current and future) amongst the cohorts of motivated and engaged members of the UK workforce mentioned here. By the evidence of the thread these factors are:
*lower profitability and lower economic confidence amongst employers, as highlighted succintly by @frostykitty above, meaning that they are right now recruiting fewer workers, especially to more senior jobs in certain industries (which means that people on this thread are finding it much harder than normal to get new work, or to meet their wage expectations when they do)
*new tech, particularly AI, reducing the need for as many workers in certain types of jobs
*sexism/ageism as a compounding factor (these existed before but aren't going away)
*and the three factors above having a knock on effect that staff currently in mid/senior jobs in white collar industries are seeing the lie of the land and not moving on from their existing roles, so there is a sort of stultification of the movement that might happen in a more dynamic jobs market.

Motivated MNers trying to find a new job are:
*applying for lots of jobs, by all sorts of means (filling in forms, tapping up their contacts etc) but getting a lot of knock backs and ghosting (and so too are their uni graduate DCs)
*looking into ideas for new industries or for retraining, but the retraining options would often require a large investment of time and money which may not be realistic if you are 40+ (I thought the PPs example of her DH who retrained and it cost thousands was very helpful).
*interested (??) in seeing more govt investment in midlife retraining options eg via adult ed (possibly partly paid for by the Royal Family becoming an arm of the sovereign wealth fund - great idea from a PP there, literally involves a sovereign! 😆) (Construction and social work both sound like they could do a retraining scheme to attract more people, but there are probably other professions too?)

On the idea of working outside the UK:
Some who are able to be globally mobile could look at moving overseas, like you sensibly have. I personally could do this, have done it before, and am considering it now. BUT ... since Brexit, Brits are persona non grata in the EU (or at least much harder to hire) and in many industries therefore last on the list (thank you, David Cameron). The US - well, I heard on the radio today that some of the Americans who can, are thinking of coming to Britain to avoid the Donald!! (I don't blame them ... but the fact is the US is not looking very attractive at the moment unless you are a DOGE fangirl and there's no chance you will need an abortion at any point). Saudi, UAE etc are an option if you are heterosexual and you like oil. I know a couple of people who've gone to Singapore. Did someone earlier in the thread mention teaching English? This made me think of China and Japan.

Further travel ideas welcome

That would be illegal, as NMW is £24k for age over 21. However, you are right that expectations vs salary offered are often shocking to me. I was paid £15k plus a car for a new graduate job in 1989 (not law, finance or anything fancy).

The 17k a year is probably not ft hours, so not illegal

I work as a production freelancer in TV, it’s a blood bath out there. I have a whattsap group and senior execs who normally would have been in really senior roles are on there asking about openings they would have worked at 20’years ago. I’m lucky as I have a permanent role but always dreading being made redundant like so many other people I know.

Maybe not all, but 100% some.

we’ve just implemented a new l&d platform and removed 3 heads and replaced with 1. Not because the AI generated talking avatar is amazing (they’re pretty annoying mannerisms!), but because what used to take 3 people days to produce content can be done by a semi competent area expert in an hour or so.

we simply don’t need ‘trainers’ or l&d Pros for the run of the mill/ non-in person stuff now.

This is very good advice.
good luck op

What is L&D? Is that online/digital learning? Could you elaborate on what you're cutting exactly. I'm interested.

I assume learning and development. Hopefully the poster can answer wrt the specifics.
I agree with @Sorryagain that the terrible economy is currently responsible for most of the job losses rather than AI.