How Are You Dealing With the Rough Job Market in 2025?
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Even if you're not currently job hunting, you probably know a lot of people are finding it incredibly difficult to find a new position. It's a perfect storm of factors: the DOGE-victim federal workers now competing for jobs with everyone else, hiring freezes at many companies (as well as the federal government), too many highly educated workers seeking jobs, the AI replacement of some entry-level positions, as well as persistent inflation and the new tariffs.
Readers, please share: If you're unemployed and job hunting, or in a job you want to leave for a new one, how are you dealing with the rough job market?
Before we kick off the discussion, here are some recent sobering stats (which could also serve as ammunition for relatives nagging you about not finding a job yet):
[In NYC], fewer than 1,000 private-sector jobs were added [in the first half of 2025], the slowest growth in the labor market outside a recession and the pandemic since 2003. — The New York Times [gift link], 8/13/25
[E]mployers not only hired fewer people than expected last month, but the government revised its jobs data sharply downward for the prior two months. With the revisions, the U.S. added 19,000 jobs in May and 14,000 in June, reflecting “paltry” employment growth during those months. — CBS News, 8/4/25
The share of unemployed Americans who are long-term unemployed — meaning they’ve been out of work for more than six months — has increased to nearly 25% from 21.6% since July 2024. — CNBC, 8/1/25
The unemployment rate among recent graduates has been increasing this year to an average of 5.3%, compared to around 4% for the labor force as a whole, making it one of the toughest job markets for recent graduates since 2015. — NBC News, 8/2/25
Here are some questions for a discussion today:
- If you're job searching, how is it going? How long have you been looking? How optimistic/pessimistic are you about being hired soon?
- Does the job situation in your particular field seem better or worse than in other careers?
- How often do you get ghosted by potential employers, even after multiple rounds of interviews?
- How much do you use AI to help you apply to jobs, e.g., for revising your resume or writing cover letters?
- If you recently got hired, what's your advice for other readers who are job hunting right now?
Stock photo via Pexels / Ron Lach.
it is my anecdotal observation that recent grads aren’t working because they aren’t equipped or don’t want to. My current employer has an entry level HR position, a kind of general “college grad” job that requires a college degree but not much else and while the pay isn’t huge includes benefits and health insurance. the four people i know who bemoan their recent graduates lack of prospects were not interested when i passed the job along… their kids are not interested in HR, need to make more money, don’t want to be in an office….
Well, that’s certainly a take!
obviously it’s not everyone but i keep hearing about recent grads who decline interviews that require them to get up early or feel strongly that entry level jobs aren’t interesting enough….
I hear stories about them, but I’ve never met one in person myself. I think they’re exceedingly uncommon.
I feel like every generation gets labelled with “kids these days have no work ethic!” I remember when that was said about my generation. I’m sad to see it now applying to younger generations. So forgive me if I use a grain of salt here, especially for admittedly “anecdotal” evidence.
Yeah, I find this take to be partisan spin. It’s not that there are no jobs, it is that kids today want easy, well-paying ones. Sure. Straight off Fox News.
Gen Z’s are lazy, dumb and entitled because their parents let them be that way and we are now seeing the result. God help us once those people are in charge 20 years from now. It’s going to be difficult to get any kind of customer service already, as no one wants to read or think. It will only get worse over time as the last of the boomers retire, and the Gen X and Y age out.
I am super frustrated with customer service these days, but I also see the other side of it: at the big profitable companies I’ve worked for, even when we keep it in house, we are asking the people answering the phones to 1) never say anything that the automated script writer doesn’t tell them to, 2)get a customer to spend more/renew/not cancel their service, no matter what they actually call in about, and 3) not average more than X seconds on the call while 4) somehow making the customer rank every single call 5 stars. We’re not giving them reasonable conditions and incentives to “read and think”. So I am not going to hold the terrible customer service against the individual cs agent at some other company, when the most likely explanation is it is their leadership’s failure.
Lol. How much you want to bet the four people are either made up or not at all in the HR field??? This seems straight from the crank older relative at Thanksgiving who is super out of touch but doesn’t know it.
LOL, it’s true! Im a Gen X who has always busted my tuchus and I now see Gen Y and Gen Z’s coming up the ladder with little to no experience, and virtually no common sense! I had to work long and hard to get where I am, which is middle management, and my job is at risk of getting cut because I manage a bunch of self-entitled A-holes who think they know more than me while they are only about 5 years out of diapers.
Ok boomer. I know you said gen x but what you said was absolute boomer trash
I mean, I have busted my tuchus too and I can also see, in retrospect, how terribly inexperienced & dumb I was in my first job. I was genuinely trying so. hard. but I did not have the professional experience to make good judgment calls. The two are not mutually incompatible.
Can they afford to accept the low pay?
Under the age of 26 no one needs benefits. They are on their parents plan. They will have spent the best part of $200k getting their degree and payments start once working. Does that low pay allow them to live in a share, have a car, make their student loan payment and eat?
The younger generation are fine. It’s our job to train them. They are very slow and email or set up a meeting when a call or walking over to the person they need help from would be far faster and more efficient.
Plenty of people under the age of 26 need insurance through their job. It might be true in your social circles that most young adults have parents with good jobs with good family insurance, healthy relationships, live close by enough that the insurance network still works for them, etc) but if you’re in a leadership role, don’t make the mistake of thinking this means “young people don’t need benefits!”
If you want to hire the best you need to pay enough that people can afford to live.
I know my social circle isn’t representative of all which is why I think of people not in a position to accept a job because of the pay. I started my career at big4. The only reason I could afford the job was because my education was paid for. You can’t afford to work for $50k a year when your student loan is $1300 a month. That income is $3,300 a month after taxes. No one in today’s economy can afford to work 50+ hours a week for $2000 a month living expenses. A room share where I live is about $1200-1500 a month. Transport is $150 a month. That leaves $450 for everything else including phone, utilities and food.
Pay ranges need to make sense. No good candidates…the job doesn’t pay enough.
i recently applied for a job. ran the listing and a general version of my resume (specifics removed) through AI and asked questions like “how do i emphasize my skills to be better suited for this job” and “write me a cover letter based on my skills for this job listing. I didn’t use any of it as it but definitely helped tweak everything.
i’m a reasonably senior person with very solid credentials but honestly i think if you want a job and are strategic and proactive there are jobs to be had. it’s amazing how many poeple i know just apply to job postings. some of them come through but you’re much better off working your network, reaching out to people directly, etc.
I’m hunkering down and trying to ride it out in a job I’d prefer to leave. I have put some feelers out there, but have already gotten back an “after evaluating our needs, we’ve decided to put hiring on hold” email after applying for a position. I live in a small city, and this employer is one of the few options here unless I change industries altogether, so that was a reality check.
Does your field have remote opportunities? In the past, my industry would have maybe 5 relevant job postings in my area a year. Now that has completely changed with remote work being more common, even with RTO as a trend.
Been looking for 1.5 years. Senior position, so fewer jobs in general. Have been networking like crazy and have some great contacts and irons in the fire but no dice yet. I have also been just applying to postings and from those I had 6 interviews last year and only 1 this year.
My current role is being phased out in a re-org. There’s a lateralish move available to me – same level, worse title, more responsibilities – which I have applied for after being told it’s mine to accept or decline. I also applied for a new internal role which the lateral move would report to, but have had no feedback since I interviewed in June. I would love to go elsewhere, but within my network, there are no jobs at my level currently. So I feel like I’m going to end up just sucking it up for the worse job because it’s better than a layoff.
the stock photo! holy time traveler!
My recent job search lasted 6 months (I looked while I still had a job). I applied to around 50 jobs, interviewed at 5 companies, and had two offers. I had three referrals. One got me an immediate interview and the other two went nowhere.
It was challenging but job searching always involves a lot of rejection in my field (it’s a desirable role and competitive). I honestly feel like I hit the jackpot with a fantastic new job. I think it’s really tempting these days to read news headlines and social media chatter and feel like everything is against you or getting harder/worse/dystopian, but try it out for yourself and see. Don’t assume the worst. It was intimidating to apply for jobs on LinkedIn where 1,000 other people supposedly applied as well. I kept at it anyway. Those numbers aren’t accurate and you can’t assume all the applicants are A+.
I think it’s great if you can get a job through networking but it’s not impossible to get one through job boards. Networking is a heavy lift and long-term play, so if that’s not working for you, just try the basics with job boards.