The concept of this column is simple. We wish to begin to give you back some sense of perspective of what is going on here in this modern day job market.  

There have been a great number of terms thrown out in the last 4 years during COVID-19 and the like about the character of the unemployed job seeker. “Labor Shortage” is about the kindest variation on the terminology used, but the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.  What there is -, is a huge misunderstanding about what hiring is, perpetuated by social decorum, tradition, and politics.  Taylor Swift is no more responsible for the camera man that follows her at the NFL game than job seekers are for the way they are portrayed or understood. 

The problem isn’t understanding, it’s ignorance that is so ignorant that it doesn’t even realize its mistake.  There’s a saying by Charles M. Blow that says “One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence of empathy and understanding is sufficient.” It applies so well here.

Modern day job seeking is a PTSD level event for most people that is not getting easier, but worse.  We don’t believe that we’ll fix it for you but we do seek to give you an olive branch of understanding what your work has done.  The industry of modern hiring is complex and we won’t be able to list it all here, but a great many companies throughout this country derive billions and billions of dollars of revenue from your presence and engagement – it’s their bread and butter. They rely on it.  So every job seeker, or unemployed job seeker should see a list of companies who have actively relied on your presence or engagement with their product or service.

Each one of these companies would not exist without the job seeker. Not a single one.  Their whole industry IS talent engagement, which means engagement with you.  Let’s list some fairly easily acquirable only 2023 revenues

Job Platforms

1. Indeed: estimated 3.9 billion dollars revenue  FY 2023 GroJob
2. Glassdoor: estimated 320 million FY 2023 Zippia
3. Monster: estimated worldwide 669 Million Zippia
4. Ziprecruiter : estimated 635 million Grojo
5. CareerBuilder: estimated 568.8 million Grojo

Staffing Services

1. Robert Half: Estimated Revenue 2023 6 Billion Grojo
2. Adecco: Estimated  Revenue 2023 6.6 Billion Grojo
3. Manpower Group: Estimated  Revenue 2023 18.9 Billion Statistia
4. Randstad: Estimated Revenue 2023 16.4 Billion GroJo
5. Kelly Services: Estimated Revenue 2023 4.9 Billion Grojo

Now keep in mind, this is JUST the big players in each field and ONLY the staffing and job platforms. There’s certainly several other variations on these groups not yet listed.  I mean only to illustrate a point.  The presence of U.S. job seekers was crucial to billions of  dollars worth of value.  Whether or not that value was returned in kind is another question entirely.

There’s another point to make here. The issue is – what would happen IF one realized the situation and knowingly did nothing and/or perpetuated it.

Say – for example – you were a job’s platform.  And say, per chance, you realized  that in reality, having scam jobs on your platform worked out pretty well to your benefit? Like as in, it appeared busier than it actually was so employers felt comfortable buying new subscriptions because EVERYONE was here. And say, per chance job applicants – unable to find work were forced to spend more time on your site frantic for work they couldn’t find and hyper obsessed  – such that the more excess nonsense jobs you threw at them, the more they were on your site? And when employers griped that they couldn’t find job applicants – you were quick to tout the “labor shortage” which was in reality – overwhelming decision fatigue.  And maybe you got richer with more subscriptions while job seekers got progressively worse and because they were worse, they were on your site even MORE.

Or say you didn’t really intentionally orchestrate that situation but because, it doesn’t really matter what motivates job seekers, it only matters if they show up, because they are something I deserve. Like say that happened – not intentionally, but maybe, it just crept up when you weren’t noticing.  Then you might not really prioritize removing ghost jobs and scam jobs because heck, who cares?  And then say you offered free jobs to employers that was really just a way to litter the job market with brand awareness campaigns and further keep people on your site? But you maybe didn’t even realize that because you just didn’t care? 

Point being, either scenario sounds fairly plausible am I right? 

The point is, not only did you, a job seeker ALREADY create value for someone, there’s a real question here about  whether the modern job market is returning that value in kind or financially benefiting from your misery.    Like also if unlike in every single other industry, you were isolated and forbidden from discussing anything lest your career be FURTHER ruined – it would be hard to root this kind of thing out wouldn’t it? It’d be really easy for it to keep going to billions of dollars worth of profit. What’s going on and how this has ripple effects.  If you were unemployed longer, what would you do? Probably also you spending too much time on the internet looking for jobs that were knowingly scam would have an effect on your ability to engage with local employers at the pizza shop or restaurant right? 

There’s a lot of ripple effects to think about when you tell the story this way. The one thing that I’m absolutely sure of – You don’t have to feel ashamed and especially if you haven’t made it in this nightmare – you have already, created value.  That stress that you’ve been under, that unpaid, unappreciated financial burden literally was the lifeblood of someone’s salary and some companies profit.

Realistically part of our goal at The Job Applicant Perspective is getting your feedback to DO something with it. To create laws about this and have dialogue with companies  about their hiring practices.  We hope, eventually, most of you will join us.