When I first graduated from college, back in the early 1990s, we were experiencing the first recession since the 1970s. The 1980s had been the big boom decade, what conservatives fondly refer to as the "Reagan Years." It wasn't all that rosy, but time and distance romanticize things. That said, listening too goofballs like Rush Limbaugh drone on how good the Reagan Years were, and how America needed to get back them, was a bit over the top. In any case, by 1992 all of that had changed. George Bush Sr. was President, and the economy had soured badly. Lots of layoffs were instituted, pensions were disappearing or begin gutted by the companies that had been trusted to protect them, and 401Ks were worth nothing. It would have been similar to what younger folks felt in 2009 with the real estate crash.

That said, trying to find a job at that time was hell. Every job, even for a basic office assistant, got 300+ applications. This was before the widespread Internet when you still had to mail or hand-deliver an application and resume. I remember going to meetings just to submit an application, not even an interview, and then hearing nothing. I think out of 200 application I got maybe three responses. It was just churning paper. Plus, everyone I knew who had a connection out of college and landed a job at graduation was already being laid off, or about to be laid off when I crossed paths again with them. It was brutal. So, those of us who couldn't land something did what we knew best - we went back to school and rode it out until things got better.

Fast Forward 30 Years Later

So here I am, 2023, and I'm poking around to pick up some extra solid work on a remote basis. We're coming off of 2021 and 2022, when supposedly, companies couldn't find enough people to hire. And what I'm finding is that for all the hype about how the job market needs people, and all the job postings I see regularly, it's a bunch of bullshit. We're still in the same nonsense of people sending out hundreds of resumes every week and getting ghosted or, if there is a response, getting badly low-balled. Yet, managers all over can't hold onto people quitting left and right. It definitely doesn't make sense.

Now, I'm one of the fortunate ones; I have a regular day job, and I freelance on the side. My issue is about getting more steady work at night to get out of the freelance chase for a bit. That said, the field is clogged with people who are scrapping just to get a day job, period. And it's clear, the 2023 job market in the U.S. as we know it today is a very confusing environment.

The Gig Economy

Probably the easiest work to get but probably the most energy suck and least rewarding long-term has been "gig" work or freelancing. Call it what you will, it's one step below temp work, and it's hard to make a living on. I did this back in the late 90s for a few years, temp worker by day and gig worker by night. That got old quick. Today, the high majority of folks in gig work are using it as side income, but a good portion, probably a third, depend on it for base income. Shareriding is probably the biggest earner, second would be writing and coding, but there are multiple other tasks available as well, depending on how much one is willing to work and settle for what's available. The fortunate thing about gig work is that it doesn't require a lot of effort to get started. You get in, do good work, and you get more work, usually.

Remote Work

Generally, this category of jobs was created en masse by the COVID pandemic. The work world is split on this aspect right now. Some companies are wiping it out - law firms are a good example. Other companies realize the benefit of a flexible labor pool and are either continuing remote work or adding to it. However, many of the remote jobs available still confine the work period to the tradition time slot of 8-5, employer time zone. That blocks out a lot of contenders in other time zones, and the majority of employer still want some face-time in the office. So 100 percent remote work is uncommon. The truth is, much of it where provided is hybrid.

Automation and AI Impact

It remains to be seen what artificial intelligence (AI) is doing to the workload. The honeymoon is wearing off a bit, with many platforms instituting checkers to block AI content. Companies internally are mixed on the tool. Some are blocking it for fear of AI collecting their business secrets (Google) and others think it's the best thing since sliced bread, supposedly getting rid of lower level labor needs for basic content crafting. In reality, AI so far is limited in context, but there's plenty of managers other their who think they know better.

In hiring, AI and automation are definitely being used to screen applicants. This is not new; resume screening was going on in the late 1990s and definitely the 2000s. It was a game of inserting the right buzzwords in a resume and application to get noticed. To be quite honest, automation had the opposite effect versus intended. It was supposed to help hiring managers find better-suited candidates. Instead, it deep-sixed anyone good because HR offices typically had no clue how to write screen words properly for a technical job. Instead, anyone worth their salt shifted over to networking and connections to get better paying jobs. Many opted to use headhunter agencies to land big positions.

The same still goes on today. Random hires do get lucky with screening, but because hiring managers aren't running the automation, or they don't know how to translate what they need into job specs, the tech side of hiring continues to be a failure. Networking remains gold.

Digital Presence and Personal Branding

Branding and Internet profiling is a weird one. A corporate security friend enlightened me to some of it. If people are my age and older, and don't have any kind of Internet presence, we're forgiven. Anyone under 40 without one is immediately suspect. Internet presence is a must in being hired, and those who have turned it into personal marketing or branding are succeeding best. The best way to describe branding is a job to find a job. You're working social media everyday, as well as traditional tools like websites and domains, to be known and "out" there. That allows any prospective employer to see your name and value without even talking to you. Of course, bad content or online mistakes work against a person, but digital presence is expected and desired. In fact, it's pretty hard to apply for a job today without being able to point a company to your social media sites.

Networking and Referrals

As noted earlier, networking is still gold. Now, some might think, why in the world would you hire someone based on whom they go to lunch with? That seems like a classic way to employ a train wreck. However, networking and referencing are still considered high value and worth far more with the right referral than the proven criteria and specs one can show with their work history and education. Go figure. Personally, I think it's just how people get around having to do fair employment. Referrals and networking have nothing to do with good screening, are entirely subjective, and grossly biased. But, it's how things get done. So either get on the bandwagon, or be left out.

Adaptability and Lifelong Learning

For the last two decades, especially after the 1990s, there has been the constant droning of re-training, re-skilling, adaptability and lifelong learning. While there is incredible value to learning new skills, culturally it's looked down upon in the U.S. People only expect others to go to school once. Those who re-train and re-skill are considered "weird" and suspect. It's completely non-sensical, but much of it is rooted in the idea that people with more skills are threats to those already established in decision-making spots. So, rather than using them in new ways, multi-skillers get closeted. Worse, applicants with lots of skills are considered floaters, or folks who can't land good work so they shouldn't be touched. It reminds me a lot of the lending world. You have to already have money and be rich to get good loans with good interest rates.

For all the bullshit about vendors valuing people with a willingness to learn, culturally the U.S. has it's head in a dark place and refuses to take advantage of such assets. Instead, the only ones doing well with re-skilling and re-training are schools and universities marketing expensive programs and financial aid to get people to go back to school

In a Nutshell

2023 job hiring is starting to look a lot like the 1990s again. A lot of chatter, a lot of fluff, but only small sectors for very specific skills and value are seeing job growth. For the rest, it's all a sham, and the only real work out there is per diem or freelancing.