- If you can't get a job right now, it might not be because of your talent or previous experience.
- Employers may be flooded with candidates, and they can't interview them all.
- Companies are getting more cautious about hiring and may have fewer talent-recruitment employees.
A lot of people are looking for work right now, and while that's great news for employers, it puts job seekers in a tough spot.
If you're blaming yourself for not getting a job despite actively looking, keep in mind there are factors outside your control in a job market with more competition and slower hiring than a couple of years ago.
Veteran recruiters and labor market analysts told Business Insider those factors include many people applying for the same role, not enough workers to review applications, and low demand in the field you're applying for.
"We're in a situation where it is harder for people to find a new job because the balance of power has shifted back toward employers," Daniel Zhao, the lead economist at Glassdoor, said, adding that hiring has been sluggish and more like the 2010s than the booming market of a couple of years ago.
Kathleen Nolan, who's been a technical recruiter for about seven years, knows how tough the job market is. She said in a LinkedIn post that she recently reassured a job seeker she rejected that it was the job market, not him.
Nolan thinks companies "are only opening roles when and if they are truly needed, and they are doing their best to not pad head count more than necessary."
"If you've never had a problem getting a job before and suddenly you do, you can't look at it and think, 'I'm the problem,'" Nolan said. "You've got to look at what's going on around you."
Some industries have more opportunities than others. Zhao said healthcare is not as subject to the business cycle as other sectors. Cory Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, said there's a lot of hiring happening in that sector, while tech and other knowledge worker gigs aren't seeing as much hiring.
"You don't choose what time you're in the job market, but you can choose which part of the job market you focus on," Zhao said.
Too many applicants for a role
For the jobs that are available, employers may not have enough hands to go through or respond to each applicant. Nolan said talent acquisition and similar roles took a hit during the pandemic, and companies haven't expanded these teams to their previous levels.
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"You have fewer people to go through more résumés and to fill fewer jobs, but it's still quite a bit of work," she said.
Bonnie Dilber, a recruiter for about a decade, said her current employer, a software company, had to pause an application for a job after getting 700 applicants within a few days of being posted. Dilber said many of the people were well qualified for the role.
"It was just seeing that a lot of people who really have the skills and could probably do the job pretty well are not even going to be able to get interviews because there are just so many people who are also on the market competing for a small number of jobs," she said.
There's no true formula for getting a job
There could be things you can do to try to move along the job process.
Dilber recommends not applying to every job opening you see and instead focusing on postings you are "well qualified" for. "Mass applying is actually hurting people because they're putting in lower-quality applications that aren't going to stand up in a competitive applicant pool," she said.
Nolan doesn't think there's a clear formula for standing out in the job search or getting that first interview. However, she recommends strategic networking, like reaching out to existing connections and to people you admire in your field of work.
"Something that can sometimes be underrated is asking for what you want, putting it out there, whether it's on LinkedIn, whether it's writing an email to folks you might know in your industry," she said.
Nolan said your LinkedIn profile should be a version of your résumé because recruiters tend to check it in addition to résumés submitted.
Beyond doing the typical grunt work of finding a job, Nolan said to be patient and to take care of yourself. She said applying for work can be a full-time job.
"Just like with your full-time job, it's important to set parameters so you don't get burned out," she said.
It's tough to say how the job market will continue to play out, even in the short term. Nolan is hopeful that things will improve soon.
"We've been in tough spots in the market before," she said.
Do you have a story to share about job searching? Reach out to this reporter at mhoff@businessinsider.com.