After getting laid off from her IT sales job in 2023, Jodi Robinett was confident she’d bounce back quickly.

Since then, she's sent more than 500 applications, spent countless hours on LinkedIn and dodged one scam job offer, she told USA TODAY. Companies have ghosted her, turned her down for jobs she says she’s overqualified for and sent boilerplate rejections for roles that pay a fraction of her previous salary.

After more than a year of rejection, she said her confidence has taken a hit.  

“I've never seen anything like this,” said Robinett, 55 and based outside of Kansas City. “I just want to work.”

Certain metrics paint a picture of a solid job market. Layoffs and unemployment rates are low despite elevated interest rates and inflation, and U.S. employers surpassed analyst expectations by adding 256,000 jobs in December.

But as companies pull back on hiring, job seekers across the country are struggling to find work.  

“It’s gotten much harder to find a job in the last two-and-a-half years. Not impossible, but it’s relatively hard by historical standards,” said Guy Berger, director of economic research at the Burning Glass Institute, a labor research and consultancy group.

How is the US job market right now?

Continued claims – the total number of Americans filing for ongoing unemployment benefits – hit 1.9 million the week of Jan. 11, a level not seen since 2018, when pandemic-driven job losses aren’t taken into account. More than 22% of unemployed Americans in December had been without a job at least six months, up from 20% the year prior.

Hiring rates are also down, hovering around 3.3% since June compared with 4.6% in 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Discounting the dramatic hiring dropoff amid early 2020 lockdowns, the last time hiring rates were this low was 2013, when the labor market was bouncing back from the Great Recession.

It’s a time full of “winners and losers,” Berger said. While those who have jobs can largely consider their roles safe, with layoffs low by historical standards, job seekers face a much more challenging environment.

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