No matter how much news outlets try to push the narrative that we are in a “hot job market”, anyone who is in search for a job knows the reality is quite different.
Matthew English is one of those people. Despite having a long career as an accountant, this 64 year old has been unemployed for almost a year. And wakes up at 3 A.M to send curriculums and apply for positions ever single day. It is not for lack of trying; he states that “the hiring system is broken”… others see a more malicious explanation for the hundreds of job ads that never seem to be filled.
The fake Economic ‘Boom’
TV news might preach that the economy is going well. Applicants can’t help but feel like Sisyphus: fill out hundreds of applications, only to be called for a round of interviews, and another round, and a final assessment… only to be ghosted and get back to square one.
This is not an exaggeration; the average job searcher must apply for more than 100 ads before they are shown a single job offer. Unemployment periods are hovering over 5 months. For older people like Matthew, ageism works against them. Despite being illegal, age discrimination is difficult to prove in the hiring proccess, where the HR team can excuse themselves saying they “didn’t fit their ideal profile”.
But, who exactly is gatekeeping all the jobs? Unfrotunately, one of the factors that makes applying for a job is something called ATS.
Automated Software as Hiring System
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are a sort of software used by 97.4% of large corporations in the United States that automatically filter resumes. How do they do this? By filtering keywords that a human has told it to look for. Sending resumes becomes a puzzle in which job seekers rack their brains trying to figure out—or imagine—what the Fortune 500 company they are sending their resume to wants to hear from them.
Not only that, but the resume becomes a technical document for the robot, which has to be rewritten to suit each job posting. The days of printing out your resume and handing it out to various places are over. Now you have to write a new resume tailored to each of the postings you see. Otherwise, it will be automatically discarded.
Ghost jobs
We can’t blame it all on software either. Companies also create ghost jobs, which are simply job offers that have no real intention of hiring at that time. Studies estimate that between 21% and 40% of job offers currently posted fall into this category. But why would they put out an ad if they don’t plan to hire anyone?
There are many hypotheses as to why companies do this. Some of the main ones are that they simply want to have a pool of pre-selected candidates in case they need people in the future. They also project an illusion of growth to the public and their investors, whom they appease by pretending they are hiring. It also serves to keep existing employees in line; it is a tactical way to put pressure on them, discourage requests for pay raises, and remind them that there are 100 people capable of replacing them.
In the end, companies come out on top, their employees live under stress, and unemployed people who fill out job applications over and over again end up feeling hopeless due to the lack of feedback. In fact, 66% of job seekers report being ignored by automated systems. A simple email declining their application would be the bare minimum of courtesy. But systematic ghosting by software if companies end up having a major impact on mental health. It’s like shouting into a void that doesn’t even echo back.
For now, the only way we can combat this phenomenon is to analyze job ads. If you find a job posting on a website that hasn’t changed in months, it’s likely that they don’t want to hire anyone. It’s also better to resort to networking; most hiring is still done through referrals. Investing time in building connections with other professionals will always be more valuable than sending hundreds of online applications. Keep your spirits up, and hang on.