Why are so many jobs open but I can't get one?

As a leading recruitment agency we often hear from candidates that they have made 100s of application often through aggregators such as LinkedIn but never seem to be shortlisted, let alone selected.

A lot of 'influencers' have an opinion on this such as bad recruiting practices, ghost jobs, discrimination, robots have taken over etc.

Let's run through some of the reasons this is happening.

1. Headcount reduction in Talent Acquisition teams.

Teams that were 20+ are now 5-10 and those that were 10 maybe down to 2 -3 due to a reduction in hiring after the post-Covid boom. This naturally leads to internal teams being overworked and quite often focusing more on generalist hiring. Therefore if you have quite a unique skillset don't take it personally if you are not contacted.

2. Increase in automation.

Companies are very often relying on technology such as ATS screening (Screen In / Screen Out), chatbots and AI assistants, video interview, NLP and AI resume screening and much more.

3. Manager fears.

As budgets are trimmed with global uncertainty it is natural for hiring managers to become more selective and at times more protective on their own position and standing.

4. Supply and demand

There is a lot of people looking for work, external factors such as inflation are making people to look for a higher paying jobs to cover their bills. As such be aware that there is a lot of competition right now. This also makes it harder for companies to screen everyone when there are 1000s of applicants for a role.

It is not just a single data point, such as recruiters are bad or hiring managers are bad. It is a perfect storm at the moment.

Our advice is stay strong, stay positive and work closely with skilled recruiters to get you in front of the right stakeholders.