Greater population numbers, declining job outcomes
Here are some scary facts that we need to know about the job market.
- In 2018, 25-year olds are better educated and more invested in their education than ever before, but half of them can’t even get a full-time job. Nearly 60% has tertiary qualifications, up from about 30% in the late 1980s. (The Foundation for Young Australians) Even though the overall U.S. job market is growing at a fair pace, we still see persistent trends of Millennials struggling to find a job after college.
- U.S. adults with at least a bachelor’s degree say that they don’t have the education and training they need to get ahead at work and just 16% of all Americans think that a four-year degree prepares students very well for a well-paying job. (Pew Research)
- With the number of full-time jobs decreasing rapidly, the number of part-time contracting, and short-term contracting jobs is ever increasing. According to Upwork, freelancers are predicted to become the U.S. workforce majority within a decade. In Australia, 31.7% of all employment is now part-time – the highest percentage ever recorded.
- Employers are becoming very selective about whom they hire. They only want appropriately qualified skilled workers who can get the job done without much retraining. They also want flexibility and just-in-time workers.
- U.S. companies can’t find the right workers, who have the right skills, at the right time. (Forbes)
- Salaries and wages have been largely stagnant despite one of the tightest job markets in the U.S., U.K., Australia and in other countries.
- People with Chinese, Indian or Pakistani-sounding names were 28% less likely to get invited to an interview than fictitious candidates with English-sounding names, even when their qualifications were the same. (World Economic Forum)
It is without a doubt that competition for available job vacancies has become very fierce.
When you do apply for a job vacancy, you’re really competing with hundreds, if not thousands, of people who are, on paper, just as qualified as you.
Just sending out resumes, even hundreds of them, in response to job vacancy advertisements probably won’t help that much either.
Most job vacancies aren’t posted or advertised publicly. HR Professionals in the know say that up to 80% of job vacancies are not published or advertised.
Yet most job seekers are spending most of their time and effort surfing the Internet versus getting out there, talking to employers, taking some chances and realising that the vast majority of hiring is about friends and acquaintances hiring other trusted friends and acquaintances.
Ironically, according to the Pew Research, the number of workers in occupations requiring average to above-average education, training and experience have increased from 49 million in 1980 to 83 million in 2015, or by 68%.
Higher education is just a pre-requisite to enter into the job market. It’s like a passport. It does not guarantee you a job.
To get that job, job seekers must find their employability edge over their competitors.
Other job seekers are your competitors.
If you really want that job and stand out from the crowd, you need a very strong value proposition that is communicated very differently from others.
Everyone looks the same on paper
A typical job seeker is confident because, on paper, she looks like the ideal candidate that employers will die for.
She has put in hours into doing up her cover letter and resume, digging up every award, achievement, and accolade to her name since high school.
She’s the captain of her sports teams and a class president.
She’s made excellent grades in college.
Her resume says that she is a natural leader, and works well with others.
She thinks that her resume will speak for itself.
What she doesn’t realise is that there are hundreds, if not thousands, like her who are applying for the same job vacancy, all having very similar resumes.
You must be different from everyone else if you really want that job.
Your resume must be restrained. Include enough information to let others know about you, but not enough to distract people from what you want them to focus on — your value proposition to them.
Always focus on the skills, experience, and achievements that will set you apart from the competition.
You will spend days leading up to the application deadline learning about the business, its industry, its digital presence, its successes and its failures.
The key question to ask yourself, “What can I do, from Day 1 on the job, to give or create value for this company?”