While it used to be a struggle already to find employment, we are now deep into a time period where we are competing against the whole world for work. Maybe not every position, but for any positions where you can work from home, this is the reality. For those who are looking for a job and struggling, give yourself a little bit of a break. When you have the below factors playing a part in the hiring hunt, and process, it can make standing out like finding a needle in a haystack.
Drastic Increase in Contract workers
Companies are constantly looking for ways to be more efficient, and outsourcing work is one of those ways. Companies have been outsourcing some jobs for years now, like cleaning services and gardening. Over the years, there is a growing trend to outsource to freelancers or specialty companies just about anything. Need an artist, accountant, assistant, customer service rep, programmer, project manager, networker, warehouse worker, etc? Those positions, among many others, companies are finding that contracting the work out is much cheaper and more convenient than ever. It is easier to budget projects with contract work, as well as make projects easy to start and stop depending on budget conditions or environmental concerns. As well as the obvious savings on overhead, benefits, insurance, etc. The chances of finding a company that wants to hire you on as a full-time employee is much slimmer these days.
Replacing Existing Work
More people that already have jobs are hunting to replace their positions. This is mostly due to the following reasons; they want a better income and benefits, to work remotely, or want a different culture. As everyone knows, Covid forced a lot of people to lose their jobs in 2020–2021. When companies started hiring people back on, employees started to realize that their current salaries for their positions are much higher than they were getting paid. So, new employees are seeing a significant income boost with their new positions. This news has pushed people that want higher salaries or better benefits to start seeing if that is true, which they are finding it is. In addition, Covid pushed companies to allow for work-from-home positions. People like companies with that option, and are changing jobs, to help improve their work-life balance. Lastly, the supply and demand issue of jobs vs open positions over the past two years has created a sort of intolerance for employees to stick it out with companies with poor cultures.
Worldwide Recruitment
Companies are recruiting people worldwide. With more people willing to work contract positions, it has made it much easier to hire freelance workers within the US and Canada, as well as anywhere else in the world. People have programmers, project managers, creative resources, and many other contractors stationed from Brazil to India, to Peru, to England, to anywhere. Companies like Fiverr, Guru, and Upwork make others feel more comfortable about hiring freelancers across the globe.
In summary, job seekers are competing against:
- Specialty Contracting Companies
- Freelance Workers
- People Replacing Existing Jobs
- People All Over the World
Finding long-lasting/stable work is much harder now, or just any job in general. Companies have hundreds of resumes to review to narrow down to the best and cheapest person for every job. It’s a different world out there today than it was a few years ago. Covid opened up and helped build the foundation of, a much more lucrative resource pool to sift through.