Job market is awful

[Flowerpowerz]

I work in pharma (general field) and the job market is horrendous. I’m seeing a huge trend towards AI which is not surprising. Perhaps more concerning is the massive uptick of offshore partners aka shipping work out to India because they are cheaper than people in the uk and USA. I have several friends in several related companies (technology, IT, coding) that have lost jobs due to this. They are being expected to share knowledge with their Indian colleagues before their redundancy kicks in.

I have honestly never known it so bad. My linked in is a sea of “open to work”

is it just me or has anyone else noticed these trends? It’s worse than ever

Most people want socialism, most people seem to have no problem with high immigration....why are you complaining now

Also to add - I've been begging for an assistant for 2 years to help with my workload. I've been told no repeatedly, and finally been told it's not a possibility but...I can have a professional copilot license instead to help me do my work quicker. I wish I was joking. This would have been an entry level job into the field, I could have trained someone up. But instead, AI.

Civil servant here. I’ve been interviewing recently for my office (chief of staff, and diary manager) plus a few policy roles…had applicants who have been investment bankers for £20 years, insurance brokers, lawyers. All unqualified for the job I need them to do so they’re not getting them even though they are incredibly well qualified.

I think a lot of people in this market thing the CS is a safe bet (certainly seems that way from a few threads I’ve seen recently). But I’ve recruited internally (within department) recently and had 70 applications for a HEO role! Never seen anything like it.

I’ve said this on several threads about job applications or people thinking about quitting and going elsewhere, but been shouted down! And it’s not about immigration, it’s about businesses collapsing because of the economy or downsizing or moving elsewhere as it’s financially better for them! And AI…if I hear one more person who claims to be an environmentalist harp on about AI and then whinge about the job market in another breath (as my colleagues do) I shall scream!!!

This is really worrying me. My own job is stable, very much, so. But my partner is about to change jobs, to something that I think was ill advised. It's a step down in terms of skill for him.So he's going to de-skill himself and it's all make it so much harder to go back into a similar level of job that he's currently in.If he hasn't done it for quite some time.

For reasons I won't go into the job doesn't have any longevity in it and I can't believe he hasn't seen that. But he is the kind of person that will do things like this and once his mind is made up, nothing can stop him.

I'm worried that he'll be out of work for a considerable period of time if he doesn't pass probation in this role, or they decide to pull it. Especially as he's told me IT is it a young person's game and he most certainly is not anymore.

If you use a graduate to do the Claude work, in a year you'll have made an investment and have a more skilled employee.

If you use Claude, in a few years you'll potentially have a skills gap with no-one to step into the next role and take on the next level of work which Claude can't do.

That really depends on the nature of the disability though and whether it affects a person's ability to do the job sufficiently well in the first place. Not every employer wants to have to make 'reasonable adaptations' for a person who isn't going to be very productive when they could simply choose someone who represents less risk.

For example if you are a wheelchair user you are obviously going to be rubbish on a building site but there is no reason why you can't do a desk job (or many other jobs) just as well as anybody else. It's your legs that don't work, not your brain.

I guess the thing is if there is a landslide of people who try and do the trades, then there will be a race to the bottom in terms of prices. And there won’t be enough work for everybody. It isn’t really a simple as everybody who’s not going to be able to find Work getting a trade. This is a much wider problem.

The price being charged around our area could afford to come down quite a bit!

Its worse if you're disabled. You're a less attractive candidate. I have multiple qualifications and experience across lots of sectors and since being made redundant last year, I've only managed to pick up two freelance gigs - both of which took the absolute piss with workload and hours they were willing to pay.

I blame several factors - Rachel Reeve's increase in employer's national insurance, Trump's tariffs, Trump's wars, Trump's crackdown on D&I initiatives (knock on effect on global charities which is the sector where I used to work).

You are absolutely right, there seems to be a renewed push to send jobs to India. My own employer has outsourced many entry level admin posts, not only making hundreds of UK employees redundant but also removing what were traditional graduate entry roles. Not sure how these companies expect to thrive without people in the UK able to earn a living though

You do know the poster is talking about British Companies not hiring people in Britain, where their business is? It could be Poles in Britain. It’s geography that’s the point.

Gosh the literacy of people on here is staggering sometimes.

UBI will be a necessity for the millions unable to find work

Don't we have this already with the benefits system? The country is struggling to pay for existing claimants at the current level let alone enhanced payments for more people.

Generally, people have ignored the news when it's announced that UK productivity is very poor, this leads to less companies wanted to invest in the UK, which leads to the GDP growth at currently is almost zero. Without growth there are no jobs.

The recent increase in NI without a doubt impacted employers, mine reversed hiring as they felt the decisions by Labour, especially rushing through the changes without a period of notice meant the UK was not a safe place to invest.

The lack of stability in UK finances due to government spending is a major factor as borrowing costs rise so impacts employers.

Labour can't make the UK finances stable as the voter base won't allow it...which is why most people are pessimistic

Construction is a UK sector that has less risk of AI but rarely considered by UK people. Someone else mentioned that machine drivers are highly in demand. Also military roles, not everything is combat as many areas which could appeal to active young people.

I think the volume of Uni students does have to reverse. I've hired many students with degrees that didn't provide enough (or any skills) for the job market.

To someone who mentioned British companies offshoring...do we have any substantial British companies??

In a few years Claude and friends will be filling every role, skills gaps won’t exist.

But if I train up a grad then chances are they'll move on in a couple of years and I'm back to square one. That's fine for a big company but, for a small company like mine, it's a nightmare. I don't have the resources to be hand holding people every day.

Well they definitely do as my husband worked at tesco for a while when between jobs.

It's really bleak. But I think you should be blaming Brexit for the havoc it was caused not Indian workers.

I also work in Pharma and am finding that even though AI has changed the way we are doing certain things the bigger impact on my company is being outside of the EU so our base is slowly moving from the UK to mainland Europe.

there are negotiations going on with the government to get more benefits to stay in the UK if successful you may see the job market in Pharma pick up.

i work at Amazon and the vast majority of people there are Indian. I’d say about 98%. Local people can’t get in because bots are snapping up the jobs applications then selling them for £200.

Can someone explain how this works?

Yep I want to look for a new role because I feel like my company is taking the piss regarding my pay. However the job market round me isn’t great, the role itself is fine and it’s a stable job with a large company so it’s fairly secure. But I feel so undervalued by the whole process I just want out and I can’t bloody find anything!

Companies are waiting to hear what Burnham is going to do. There is a hiring freeze all over the place.

Companies have to be competitive or they won't win contracts.

Yes seeing this in two generations in my family. Child 1 who has had part time jobs since 15, loads of experience in retail and hospitality, has really struggled to find a summer job this time around. Been asked to do free ‘trial’ shifts in several places or had agencies requiring her to do hours of online training with no guarantee of any work after. Graduates next year and I have no idea what she will find for work.

For myself I moved out of education into the third sector two years ago. Took a substantial pay cut at the time thinking I would claw it back and the salary hasn’t moved.. they just say they can’t afford to pay more. I’ve had another company I freelance for try to poach me.. but they won’t pay any more either. I’m earning the same as I was about twenty years ago and honestly at nearly 50 had hoped not to still be watching every penny till pay day.

It'll be the new degree in 10 years, although lots of nepotism in trades.

The job market is in a dreadful state. I expected artificial intelligence to cause serious disruption, and it has done precisely that.

I feel deeply for the younger generation, particularly those who genuinely want to work, contribute, and build a decent future.

I do not know what the solution is yet, and it's worrying.