How Are You Dealing With the Rough Job Market in 2025?

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.

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