Americans Are Applying to Thousands of Jobs and Still Can't Get Hired

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]What do you mean they viewed my profile?

[00:00:01]What do you mean they viewed my resume and then what? Like at least Indeed would tell me, "Hey, the company's not interested." All I'm getting is so and so viewed your resume. So and so viewed your profile and then what? You know, someone on TikTok was like, "Hey, you got to pay for a LinkedIn premium." So I've been paying for LinkedIn premium.

[00:00:18]Mind you, currently unemployed, so that was a hefty $29.99.

[00:00:23]Um they said it comes with extra perks.

[00:00:26]What extra perks? And you know, I get we hate AI. We know what AI is doing to the planet, but the fact that I got to manually type in all of my information for every time I apply for a position.

[00:00:37]The apply with AI button is getting real this close. And it's 2026. There should be a filter where it automatically lets companies know that I'm not a veteran, that I'm not on disability, that I am Latino or 2011 racist because I don't know, why not? And that um I don't need any extra assistance when it comes to applying for this job. And the AI interviews are really getting to me because AI would literally ask me, "Oh, how is your day going?" I was like, "Oh, my day is going good." And it's just a default for me to ask, "How's your day going?" I'm asking AI how their day is [ __ ] going. And they're giving me a response. Can somebody please explain the logic behind me getting rejected to be a sales associate at H&M? Are we for real? Not to mention, I have a degree from university. I spent four years in literal hell to get a college degree just to not get accepted to a retail job. A retail job. Like this is literally not real right now. I've been applying to jobs for months and not a singular place wants me. Like the only thing that's keeping me alive right now is UGC for brands that I found on Sideshift. So, thank goodness for that.

[00:01:47]The job market right now is so ass. I'm about to hit a year in postgrad and I still haven't secured a job in my career. Even with all the experience that I have, as soon as I graduated, I had secured a part-time job in a warehouse, which, you know, was fine.

[00:02:03]But in that moment, I had gotten kicked out from my family's home. And so, I had to job search all over again. And I finally secured something just recently, but it's another warehouse job, so it's still not in my career. And I've applied everywhere to internships, to jobs that don't even pay. And yet somehow I'm still getting rejected. I know people that just got their masters and are struggling to get a job right now. It's just so ass right now. It's so bad. But this is your sign to just keep trying.

[00:02:31]Just keep applying. You know, the job that I got, it's not ideal for what I want to do, but it's good pay. You know, in this sense, just put yourself a little bit out there. Do a little bit of everything. You know, that Mr. Jackson mentality.

[00:02:43]>> We keep seeing in the headlines that there are tons of jobs being added to the job market, but if you're applying to jobs, that may not be the case.

[00:02:53]People are applying to thousands and thousands of jobs without getting any interviews, without getting hired. And it's very demoralizing to a lot of individuals because when you're unemployed and you're job seeking, it's pretty much a full-time job. It's very time consuming for whatever reason. When you're applying to online jobs, they make you upload your resume, but not only that, they make you fill out the same information on an online form, which kind of defeats the purpose of uploading that resume in the first place. So, it's a very timeconuming process. And people who are applying to hundreds and thousands of jobs, they're not getting any answers. And it really signals to the overall job market that maybe some of these job listings aren't actually hiring.

[00:03:40]And in fact, a lot of companies put out listings for jobs where they have no intention of hiring a candidate either because they have a candidate in mind already and they had to put out a job listing just for compliance or it's a fake listing in order to show to investors that the company is growing so the stock and company can grow as well.

[00:04:05]It's a very hard time in the job market right now. Let me know in the comments below what you think and take a look at the rest of these clips.

[00:04:12]>> We're really looking for someone who can wear multiple hats. That's our way of saying you're going to do five people's job for the price of barely one. Now, I saw on your resume you have a master's degree.

[00:04:26]Why? We're really looking for someone with a very particular personality. Just go with the flow. Going to fit right into our office culture. Yeah, that's because we have people here with anger management problems, boundary issues, and we're not going to address them. We don't want you going to HR. You're just going to look the other way. You're a small company. We're really like a family. So, we don't have an HR department. Now, I know we said on the job listing this was a fully remote position, but actually, it's not. We'll let you work from home the few days you say you're sick. Give me an idea of what your next 10 years look like. Do you imagine yourself here for 10 years?

[00:05:09]Because we really just want someone here for the long haul. We don't want to we don't want high turnover, you know, people who are just going to stick around for like a year. Like I know that this is just the ice cream scoop place in the mall, but yeah, we're looking for someone who's going to commit for the next decade. No, there's there's no opportunity for growth or pay raises.

[00:05:30]Lunch is 15 minutes in a tiny closet, but we expect you to bring your computer with you to continue working. A scale of 1 to 10, one being low, 10 being high, how familiar are you with the state and federal labor laws.

[00:05:48]Eight, that might be an issue. Part of our interview process is you pitching us ideas and we're just going to steal those. you're not going to get paid and you're never going to hear from us. So, we actually plan on replacing your role in about 3 months with AI. So, you're just going to spend the next 3 months training the AI to replace you. So, our benefit package is 3 days off a year.

[00:06:17]None of that can be a holiday. You have to work on the holidays. Did you say you had a family, friends?

[00:06:27]We don't we don't really want a candidate with that because like we want them totally devoted to the company. The only people hiring right now are weapons manufacturers, Fox News, and AI startups. Which of those interests you most?

[00:06:44]I'm fully at the stage of crashing out.

[00:06:46]I mean, I don't have a job. I live in New York City and I just honestly don't know what to do with myself. I don't know how to proceed with my life. I don't know where I should go. I'm like completely just lost. And I know that they say that good things happen when you're lost, but I'm still like I've been praying every day. Like I don't know what to do.

[00:07:17]If anyone's ever been in this sort of predicament, like drop something down below, some words of advice, something you'd recommend. I just I fear I'm hitting that wall where you're just like the delusion is gone and now you're just freaking out about everything.

[00:07:37]And so, yeah, >> the worst part about being unemployed isn't even the fact that you're unemployed. The worst part is actually the people around you feeling like you're a bum and that you're lazy just because you can't get a job in this job market. But they don't realize that you've been applying for hundreds of jobs every day for the last 6 months.

[00:07:55]But the only email that you get in return is, "Thank you for your interest, but unfortunately like do you know how draining it is to be applying for this many jobs, but no matter what you do, you can't get a job. You can't find a job. And everyone around you is draining the life out of you cuz they're always making comments. They're always looking at you in some type of way. Like, do you think that I want to be in this position? I didn't choose this life.

[00:08:18]This life chose me. Unfortunately, >> I'm literally in my car crying.

[00:08:27]That's so stupid because like I this is like so embarrassing but like the job market right now is just like so humbling.

[00:08:45]It's so humbling and like just like the amount of rejection.

[00:08:53]It's like I understand like not every job is like for everyone, but it's just like I've basically been in the market for over a year now.

[00:09:06]And it just like it really just does something to like your mental health. And this is so dumb that I'm like literally I'm only recording this because I don't talk about it. I never talk about it ever.

[00:09:26]Um, but it's like finding a position in the field that I was working in is so hard and like I enjoy what I do so much that it's like I don't want to settle but it's like oh my god this market is just it's terrible. It's I'll go through rounds of interviews. I will apply to a million jobs and it's just like nos all across the board.

[00:10:00]And I'm very thankful for what I'm currently doing, but it's just this job market is not for the week.

[00:10:12]And I'm just going to allow myself to be sad about it for like a little bit. I'm only like really sad because I just got another rejection.

[00:10:23]So, it's just frustrating.

[00:10:28]I know we'll get through it. And I'm just like trying to be positive and be like, okay, like, you know, I don't know, name the positives, but it's just it's I'm just having a bad day and I'm being so drama. There's so much like worse things happening in the world. I know.

[00:10:55]I know. But I never talk about this. It's something I've been struggling with for the past year, exactly a year actually in April.

[00:11:09]And I just feel like for so long I've made my career my identity.

[00:11:15]So it's like without it I'm like who am I?

[00:11:22]So so dumb. So, I have to pull it together. I have to go inside. There is my pity party for the day. I'm done.

[00:11:32]I'm going to go, I think, make a coffee and play some positive music and just make myself feel better.

[00:11:41]Oh my god. Okay, bye. I literally graduated from Princeton in the fall of last year. I'd say like at this point I've applied to like between 500 to like 800 jobs. Mind you, I graduated with a 4.0 GPA that I maintained every single semester and graduated sumakum la. Like serious question, who has a job right now? So you're telling me as a Princeton graduate, I was a finance major with a 4.0 GPA. I can't find any job other than as a sales associate at the local Target down my street. Like, it's honestly so crazy when I sit down and think about my life because I thought going to Princeton, you know, getting the grades, getting the GPA, I'd come out, I'd have my six figure job. It's getting delusional. I mean, I'm working my minimum wage job. Like, I'm trying to be okay. I'm trying to like be grateful or whatever. I know like a lot of people in the comments will be like, "Oh, she went to Princeton. She's not struggling."

[00:12:43]Blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah, I'm not like freaking homeless. I had on campus jobs. I'm working like my target job. I mean, I have lots of pennies saved up here and there to fund my occasional like coffee cravings. I have a like side hustle on the side where I play games on this app called Benjamin and redeem like um points and cash back for like monetary value. So, I guess I just got to be grateful for the little income that I have coming in. This like really just is a sad and scary time to be alive. Honestly, >> I was at the bar with three white women the other day and they were talking casually about their jobs. Oh, I make 180K. Oh, I got my friend hired. Oh, I'm about to hire my other friend. She doesn't have any experience, but it's okay. We'll teach her. And I'm sitting here as a black man thinking like, "Oh, so it still works like this. Y'all literally just hire your friends because I did everything right. I went to college, graduated on time. Every job I had was better than the last. I got 10 years corporate experience. I'm a former management consultant at McKenzie.

[00:13:50]Why can't I get hired? And meanwhile, you got these people out here just casually admitting that they get jobs like party invitations. They don't do nothing, make money, work from home.

[00:14:00]That [ __ ] makes no sense. And then they'll say, "Oh, did you redo your resume? Are you networking? Are you chatting? Are you putting yourself out there?" How are we supposed to get ourselves in rooms that are inherently not designed for us? Especially as a black man. Like genuinely, if you are a hiring manager and you have a strong black candidate and you're a white person or you're a white woman, I'm not trying to be racist, but why the [ __ ] would you choose the black dude?

[00:14:26]Seriously, why would you choose him? And that's the reality that that I'm facing that many people are facing. I know black men who have so much experience who have been out of work for over two years. So, with the lack of regulation and the lack of and the limited DEI that is still out here, we're not getting these opportunities, bro. So, we're going to have to think of something else. If you're white or you're a manager, drop something in the comments, please.

[00:14:51]>> It's more important now than ever that our job market is strong, but that's not the case. People are applying to so many jobs and getting nowhere in responses. A lot of these candidates are qualified.

[00:15:03]They have years of experience. They have a bachelor's degree, even a master's degree, people are not finding employment. And even though the news and the media says that the job market is good, thousands of jobs are being added, that is not the case if you are a job seeker. And it's very stressful because if you're unemployed, the bills do not stop. They're going to keep coming every single month. And it's very stressful because a lot of people are getting pushed thin. They're running out of their emergency savings and they're giving up.

[00:15:36]They don't know what else to do. I hope things in the job market do get better because it really is tough out there.

[00:15:42]But let me know what you think. Hi. Just logging on to be an absolute nuisance to society. But I knew when I quit my job that the job market's bad and whatever.

[00:15:53]I was like, I'm going back to school.

[00:15:54]New opportunity. Maybe more jobs will serve in the meantime. Won't be hard to get a job. I have six years of serving experience. Most of that as a shift lead under the manager for a small chain restaurant. Like amazing personality. Worked in sales for almost two years. Like obviously I've got it going on. I'm a [ __ ] phenomenal hire and I can't get a job. I can't get a job. I'm freaking out. My savings are dwindling. I don't really know what I'm going to do.

[00:16:29]what's a girl to do? And I go into these interviews and they're like, "Um, well, why don't you just go back to your company you were with for six years that's like down the street?" Cuz they can only give me one day a week. That's why you think I didn't think of that first.

[00:16:45]Obviously, I would love to go back to the place I worked at for six years and was great at.

[00:16:53]Did I have a dramatic exit? Yes. Do I think we can forget about it? also. Yes.

[00:16:58]But I can't.

[00:17:01]So instead, I'm going through a three round interview right now for a chain restaurant, and I don't even know if I'll get it.

[00:17:11]Life, man, it ain't easy being breezy.

[00:17:15]We need to be more honest about the current state of this economy and the job market because not enough of us are actually sharing the truth. I'm going to tag the creator who inspired me to even share my point of view on the topic is Kasanova Brown. So go to his page and watch his video because he shares a really honest perspective about this topic. And what he essentially was saying is that this the current state of the job market is essentially manufactured like this whole thing around job scarcity and you know so many people in the job market can't find jobs like they're going 6 months, one month, two years um you know just just a really long time longer than usual that people are going without a job. the person that you know always say with a job they ain't got one. You know what I mean? So that's where that's where you know it's a problem. And based on what I can see, I can tell you a few things. And I think I'm going to give you three main points.

[00:18:00]And the first one's going to be this. I agree with the whole the job the job scarcity is manufactured. And the reason why is because I believe that and this is my opinion, my opinion only.

[00:18:14]I believe that there is a force that a lot of these organizations, corporations are forcing people into the job market, creating less full-time positions but creating more contract work. And the reason why is because full-time employees are expensive.

[00:18:35]So, working for a US-based employer and you are a US a US-based worker, you have to understand, right? Inflation is crazy right now and it has been for a while.

[00:18:46]So that means it's going to cost more.

[00:18:48]We're going to ask for more. We're going to request more. And in good faith, an organization has to at least give you a merit increase like every year, right?

[00:18:58]So when you forego hiring full-time employees and you move into a contract type situation, that's less that they have to pay in benefits. uh that's less liability for them as well because there are certain laws, labor laws like that they don't have to necessarily like worry about.

[00:19:17]And so I think that they are essentially just forcing many of us into a situation where you know what, yeah, we're going to create this manufacturer job scarcity so that you don't find a full-time role and you have to go back into the workforce as a contractor so that way we can get the same work for less.

[00:19:38]Now the second thing that I will say and what I'm noticing is that a lot of organizations this you usually only really see this in customer service based um type of organizations or departments right you have BPOS's this means that organizations are outs outsourcing the work so when you call AT&T T-Mobile whoever on the phone you get somebody who may be overseas right doesn't mean that they can't do the job just as well as someone who is based in the US. But what it means is again instead of hiring 10 full-time employees for their contact center, they're hiring 50 for half the price of those 10. Okay? So, they can hire literally like 20 100 contract workers for like $2,000 overseas.

[00:20:29]In the US, that's 200,000, right? So they're looking at it from the perspective of, yeah, like we still need labor. So don't be fooled. These companies are still hiring, right? They're just not hiring contra they're not hiring full-time employees.

[00:20:44]They're hiring contractors. And the same like the rules that would apply to hiring a full-time employee don't apply to a contract worker. That's my two cents. And um I'm hoping that eventually this is something that we can sound the alarm on because if they're not hiring us, like what do we do? What do we do?

[00:21:06]>> So, it's been 7 days since I've been looking for the job. And in those seven days, I have so far had six interviews.

[00:21:11]Six interviews in 7 days. I have an interview later today at 3:15. And then I had three interviews scheduled Monday morning. And I told myself if I was ever going to become unemployed again that I was going to hit the ground running and I was going to get my [ __ ] together.

[00:21:21]Last time I was unemployed for 7 months.

[00:21:23]7 months. Okay, this time, uh-uh, I'm giving myself 30 days. That's it. So, here are a few things that I'm doing different, and this is from a lazy person. I am lazy and I procrastinate, but if I can do it, you can do it. First thing being, I have more than one resume. Yeah, are they all tailored to the finance industry? Yes, but I have way more than one resume. Number two, I've been reaching out to recruiters like crazy. Every recruiter within a 10 to 20 mile radius, yeah, I've been reaching out to them and giving them my application. Number three is I got LinkedIn premium, but if I'm being completely honest, I don't know the difference. I don't know the difference between premium and regular. Someone on TikTok said that it would higher my chances of getting employed, so I did it. But I'm going to be completely honest. I do not know the difference.

[00:21:59]And last but not least, I am not implying on Indeed. Last time I was lazy. All I did was Indeed. No. If I see a job listing on Indeed, I will find out the name of the company and I will apply directly from their website cuz I am not going through Indeed. [ __ ] Indeed.

[00:22:11]>> And I've talked about this before, but can we talk about how hard it is to get jobs now? Like I've been on a fivemon job search cuz I got fired from my last job like about November, December. So I've been trying to get a new job and it's literally been hell. Like why am I doing a 30 40 assessment to get a job?

[00:22:27]Why? Like I'm taking a test to get a job. Like why is that a thing? I never understood you got to take and then and then the test be the same questions in in like the same rotation. Like it's just a pointless assessment. But then it's required too. So it's like if you they basically saying either you're going to take this test or you're not going to be considered to even get the job. Like that's bogus.

[00:22:50]And then you call places, the um high manager is never there. Oh yeah, he in here today. He'll be there tomorrow.

[00:22:56]Yeah, she here today. She'll be here tomorrow. Like what's up for real? Then other day I got hired at FedEx and they ghosted me. I didn't get the background and everything. Called up there Friday three times. Called up there yesterday three times. Nothing. They didn't answer. Like what's what's really going on with these jobs? It's getting on my nerves. It's so irritating. Like we got to really do better for real cuz there's just no way. And then they be swearing they hiring too. babies. Oh yeah, on their little websites. Oh yeah, we're hiring. We're hiring. And you try to get on dead end.