A TikTok user and unfortunate job hunter claims to have filled out 300 applications to receive only five responses, all of them useless or worse, and was told they’re “overqualified” when they turned to fast food joints and gas stations out of desperation. Naturally, they’re questioning whether or not the alleged “labor shortage” that some have complained about is a real thing, because it actually seems like no one wants workers anymore.
“Three hundred job applications later and only five employers have gotten back to me,” they say in the TikTok video. “Three of them were scammer, one of them was a pyramid scheme, and the other one was no longer in business.”
So what they’re saying is that four of them were scammers. At least the one person was nice enough to get back to them about there not being a job available. These days, the vast majority of employers will just ghost you if they decide they don’t want you for any reason.
Looking for jobs in 2023 has truly become a depressing venture.
Even lowering your standards all the way to the center of the Earth isn’t good enough.
“So what do I do next?” the TikToker goes on. “I check places like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Spanx, QT, other local gas stations with hiring signs lit up all the time. McDonald’s and Taco Bell tell me I’m too qualified and all of the sudden the gas stations are no longer hiring.”
“But there’s a labor shortage, right?”
This TikTok user is far from the only one to report that they’ve sent out an incredible number of job applications only to get nowhere, directly challenging the “nobody wants to work anymore” managers and executives who hate the new labor movement. Investigations have found that a lot of companies post fake job ads for various reasons, including tricking shareholders into thinking the company is doing better than it is or to appease their current employees who are complaining about doing the work of three.
When it comes to places like McDonald’s, gas stations, and others that offer the lowest-paying, most underappreciated jobs, they will tell people they’re “overqualified” when what they really mean is “you’ll be too hard to exploit.” Minimum wage job creators want only the most desperate people under their thumbs — those who can’t afford to make trouble, demand decent treatment, or, dare we say, unionize.
It’s no surprise that these problems are proliferating in the state of Florida.
“If I hear one more person whine about the ‘labor shortage’ I’m gonna lose it,” the video description reads. “And if anybody tries to say some s–t about FL, all I have to reply to that with is that they did it to them mf selves.”
Then, of course, there are the job ads that are literally there to steal your identity.
Commenters on the video reports similar issues finding jobs, with many waiting several months or more before finally landing work.
“It took me 6 months and hundreds of applications to find a job,” said one user. “Thank goodness my fiance is amazing and supported me otherwise I’d be homeless.”
“I got a text yesterday asking me to schedule an interview…. somewhere I applied to 4 YEARS AGO,” reported another.