Job market in the US - is the job market truly as strong as what the official numbers are showing?

[NeopetLandy]

This is kind of a serious topic, hence I've decided to put it in the Debate zone.

Due to the nature of my job, I do have to follow news in the US closely and one of the things I monitor is the job market in the US. I don't have many personal friends in the States outside work and I thought maybe it would be nice to hear some opinions from people about this. I'm just assuming many fellow players live in the US.

Many people have been consistently wrong in predicting that job market will be tougher this year compared to the previous years but official data has proven them wrong.

If anyone has some experience with job search recently or is aware of the job market situation (regardless of profession or specific US city), please do share some anecdotes with me.

Thank you in advance.

[Alcremie]

Here are my findings:

-From February to June of this year I was unemployed searching for jobs. 2,000+ applications, 9 interviews, 2 offers. It was hell. Lots of jobs I applied to were closed because of restructuring, ghost listings, data harvesting schemes, scams, etc. I have a bachelor's degree and 10 years of big tech background for reference.

-I paid attention to the "jobs added" and the unemployment rate. I believe in March and April the numbers had to be readjusted to lower job creations and employed Americans. Sure, many people did get jobs but what were the quality, pay? I would like to guess that these jobs are second and third jobs people are getting to support themselves and their familes.

-I've never seen so many people with Master's degrees looking for retail and fast food gigs as I have now. With the tech and insurance layoffs the market is full of applicants and the competition for one (good) position is insanely high. I hadn't seen stuff this bad since 2008 tbh. and that's a whole other thing I had to deal with.

[NeopetLandy]

Here are my findings:

-From February to June of this year I was unemployed searching for jobs. 2,000+ applications, 9 interviews, 2 offers. It was hell. Lots of jobs I applied to were closed because of restructuring, ghost listings, data harvesting schemes, scams, etc. I have a bachelor's degree and 10 years of big tech background for reference.

-I paid attention to the "jobs added" and the unemployment rate. I believe in March and April the numbers had to be readjusted to lower job creations and employed Americans. Sure, many people did get jobs but what were the quality, pay? I would like to guess that these jobs are second and third jobs people are getting to support themselves and their familes.

-I've never seen so many people with Master's degrees looking for retail and fast food gigs as I have now. With the tech and insurance layoffs the market is full of applicants and the competition for one (good) position is insanely high. I hadn't seen stuff this bad since 2008 tbh. and that's a whole other thing I had to deal with.

Thank you very much! This is really helpful.

-2k applications, 2 offers - this is crazy! And I can't imagine the effort needed to send in 2000 applications.

-I don't think there's a data to capture people who have "downgraded" their jobs. Wage growth data is still decent even though it's slower than last year.

-I'm very surprised that in the US that's happening. Degrees are generally much more expensive in the US than the other countries. I never thought anyone would compare the current situation with 2008 - this is actually really surprising for me. Thank you so much for sharing this anecdote with me. I sincerely hope you've found something you like after all the hardships.

[kittyray]

I'm a software engineer in the tech industry and lost my job at A Big Company end of last year. I decided to enjoy the holidays and the search this year has been rough. I've had multiple recruiters I'd been working with get laid off themselves, and even more conversations end with the process getting paused for hiring freezes or "we're not actually hiring right now, we just want to start the process for when we are" or the like. I'm competing with every other software engineer who got laid off or forced out of big companies with 1-3 YOE, and ultimately it feels pretty dejecting.

It definitely varies a lot of role/experience, though. People I know with several more years than me, especially those coming from smaller companies or had jumped around startups, didn't have nearly as much trouble, especially the ones I knew who voluntarily downleveld to adjust career trajectory. I can't speak to software engineers primarily working outside of tech companies at all.

I also have some non-engineer people I know in other fields (healthcare, corporate investment stuff, marketing, education) who have had difficulty finding new roles while still employed at their old ones.

[NeopetLandy]

I'm a software engineer in the tech industry and lost my job at A Big Company end of last year. I decided to enjoy the holidays and the search this year has been rough. I've had multiple recruiters I'd been working with get laid off themselves, and even more conversations end with the process getting paused for hiring freezes or "we're not actually hiring right now, we just want to start the process for when we are" or the like. I'm competing with every other software engineer who got laid off or forced out of big companies with 1-3 YOE, and ultimately it feels pretty dejecting.

It definitely varies a lot of role/experience, though. People I know with several more years than me, especially those coming from smaller companies or had jumped around startups, didn't have nearly as much trouble, especially the ones I knew who voluntarily downleveld to adjust career trajectory. I can't speak to software engineers primarily working outside of tech companies at all.

I also have some non-engineer people I know in other fields (healthcare, corporate investment stuff, marketing, education) who have had difficulty finding new roles while still employed at their old ones.

Thank you so much for sharing your personal experience and the other information with me. Again, this is very surprising to me as the job numbers and the US inflation numbers are not telling us this story. Regarding the tech industry, someone came to me recently and said the number of news on layoffs have slowed drastically this year compared to last year which means companies have turned more bullish on hiring again. This doesn't seem to be the case at all looking at what you guys said. I'm also surprised that start-ups are doing ok given how expensive funding has been for them this year.

I hope for the best for you and hope you find something you like and a position and corresponding pay that you deserve!

[orangebytes]

Maybe the areas matter.

My experience as well as friends/family is the job market is booming. Any skilled trade is being paid decently to start and non-skilled trades cannot seem to find enough help to keep up.
As far as I can tell, job market is booming and everywhere is always hiring. The subject of keeping people may be another story though.

[NeopetLandy]

Maybe the areas matter.

My experience as well as friends/family is the job market is booming. Any skilled trade is being paid decently to start and non-skilled trades cannot seem to find enough help to keep up.
As far as I can tell, job market is booming and everywhere is always hiring. The subject of keeping people may be another story though.

Thank you for this info. Some views are saying that US is going through a rolling recession - different industries go through downturns at different times in the US which helped to support the overall job market. But for each individual, in reality, it's tough to move across industries.

[I_royalty_I]

I think it really depends on what jobs you're after and how much experience you have.
I had two remote IT jobs for the past year - recently, my position was terminated from one of them. This was through no lack on my part but because the work they had didn't line up with what I was doing. I wanted to do engineering work and they were more focused on conceptualizing reports to try and win contracts. My other job is a senior level position doing security work and that one is going strong - we are actually looking to hire 1-2 more engineers for the upcoming projects we have.

I got used to have the dual income so I'm currently job hunting to find a position that is easy enough for me to juggle two jobs, but challenging enough to get me the pay rate I want. It is pretty difficult. In the past I have had recruiters shooting me messages and calling me almost constantly, but lately it hasn't been as often. I still get them, but just not much that really piques my interest. After trolling the job boards, there doesn't appear to be as many interesting spots available either. With that said, I have 2 roles I'm currently following up on to see where they lead - but my skillset is pretty specialized and specific, so it might not be the same experience others have.

None of my friends have had any layoffs or anything like that recently

[NeopetLandy]

I think it really depends on what jobs you're after and how much experience you have.
I had two remote IT jobs for the past year - recently, my position was terminated from one of them. This was through no lack on my part but because the work they had didn't line up with what I was doing. I wanted to do engineering work and they were more focused on conceptualizing reports to try and win contracts. My other job is a senior level position doing security work and that one is going strong - we are actually looking to hire 1-2 more engineers for the upcoming projects we have.

I got used to have the dual income so I'm currently job hunting to find a position that is easy enough for me to juggle two jobs, but challenging enough to get me the pay rate I want. It is pretty difficult. In the past I have had recruiters shooting me messages and calling me almost constantly, but lately it hasn't been as often. I still get them, but just not much that really piques my interest. After trolling the job boards, there doesn't appear to be as many interesting spots available either. With that said, I have 2 roles I'm currently following up on to see where they lead - but my skillset is pretty specialized and specific, so it might not be the same experience others have.

None of my friends have had any layoffs or anything like that recently

Thank you. I appreciate all these input. I can see that people can have very polarised experiences here. I'm very glad to hear that you are back to having 2 roles now! and your friends seem safe so far. That's very fortunate.

[nestlepak]

i work in the biotech industry.. its been *rough* the past year. layoffs happening all around me, 20-30%. we are on a hiring freeze but we were backfilling this open spot after someone left, and 488 people applied to the position. i'm constantly seeing hundreds of people applying to positions on linkedin rn. this is about ~3x higher than it is normally. im super grateful to be employed rn and hope it stays that way. i don't want to be on the search in this market