Amidst a challenging job market, a new report from Zety found that American workers are struggling to land new jobs after a layoff.<\/p>\n
Zety, a career and resume platform, surveyed almost 1,000 Americans who have experienced a layoff in the past two years.<\/p>\n
According to the report, 53% of laid-off workers<\/a> submitted more than 50 applications before landing a new role, and 1 in 5 submitted over 100 applications.<\/p>\n Additionally, over 30% of laid-off workers were unemployed for over 90 days before securing a new job, even though 76% of workers began their job search less than a month after being laid off.<\/p>\n According to Jasmine Escalera, a career expert at Zety and the author of the report, the data aligns with what she’s been hearing from job seekers and seeing on social media.<\/p>\n “We know that it’s a challenging and tough job market<\/a>, and we’ve been hearing for a while that many job seekers are having a hard time landing positions,” Escalera says. “We’ve been seeing professionals post about applying to sometimes hundreds of jobs before they actually land one.”<\/p>\n According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest report, U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs<\/a> in July \u2013 a sharp decrease from last July’s total<\/a> of 114,000 jobs.<\/p>\n Moreover, U.S. employers announced over 62,000 job cuts in the month of July, a 140% increase from last year, according to outplacement services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.<\/a><\/p>\n From a job seeker’s perspective, the Zety report’s findings should “validate your experience” of struggling to find a new position, Escalera says.<\/p>\n “Now, does that make the experience okay? Of course not,” she continues. “But job seekers can maybe breathe a little bit of a sigh of relief and say, ‘OK, it really isn’t just me.'”<\/p>\n A “recipe for disaster”<\/p>\n According to Zety’s report, workers currently face a number of obstacles in the job search, including vague job listings, slow application and interview timelines, increased competition for the same roles and being “ghosted”<\/a> during the process.<\/p>\n A primary concern is that companies are offering lower salaries, Escalera says.<\/p>\n “It’s a company market right now,” she says. “Companies have the upper hand, which is unfortunate, and I think they’re using that to their advantage by lowering salaries.”<\/p>\n Help us help you:\u00a0Take our survey on work, money and life goals<\/a><\/p>\n Meanwhile, the report found that 62% of laid-off workers are dipping into their savings and emergency funds<\/a> to tide them over until their next job, while 54% rely on credit cards or loans. Almost 1 in 10 laid-off workers are using government aid like SNAP<\/a> to stay afloat.<\/p>\n These conditions create “a recipe for disaster” for workers, Escalera says, with long-term consequences for their financial stability.<\/p>\n “We’re dealing with a job seeker who’s likely stressed because they’ve been laid off, maybe a little bit desperate, feeling the financial insecurity and instability \u2014 and then finally, they land a job, and that job isn’t even paying them market value,” she says.<\/p>\n Even after finding another job, their anxiety lingers<\/a>: 62% of workers reported feeling very concerned that a\u00a0potential recession could affect their new role.<\/p>\n “It’s kind of a traumatic experience for a career professional to be laid off, especially if you didn’t know it was coming,” Escalera says.<\/p>\n Top tips for job seekers<\/p>\n Most job seekers are using the right tactics to secure a new role, Escalera says, but it’s difficult to stand out in the current market.<\/p>\n “The basic things that we used to tell job seekers to do, all job seekers are doing,” she says.<\/p>\n Though you may feel reluctant to bring up your layoff in job applications, Escalera recommends being open about your current employment situation. According to the report, 94% of laid-off job seekers included a cover letter addressing their layoff.<\/p>\n “There is no such thing as a linear career, and so there is no reason to shy away from talking about a layoff,” she says.<\/p>\n If you’ve been unemployed for several months, explaining your situation to hiring managers will help clarify the gap on your resume<\/a>, Escalera says. It also gives you an opportunity to mention any programs, certificates or skills you’ve been working on in the interim.<\/p>\n Right now, networking should be “top of mind,” according to Escalera: “My advice for anyone in this job market right now is really focus on human to human interactions<\/a>.”<\/p>\n You can also find support from other job seekers, “especially if you happen to be caught in a wave of layoffs,” Escalera says.<\/p>\n “Being with other job seekers who are also going through it will help you validate your experiences, get the support you need, hear about what other people are doing in their job search and give you some new and fresh ideas,” she says.<\/p>\n Want to stand out, grow your network, and get more job opportunities?\u00a0Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It’s new online course,\u00a0How to Build a Standout Personal Brand: Online, In Person, and At Work<\/a>. Learn from three expert instructors how to showcase your skills, build a stellar reputation, and create a digital presence that AI can’t replicate. Sign up today with coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off the regular course price of $67 (plus tax). Offer valid July 22, 2025, through September 2, 2025.<\/p>\n Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter<\/a> to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn<\/a> to connect with experts and peers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amidst a challenging job market, a new report from Zety found that American workers are struggling to land…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[6594,45,49,48,124,6595,42395,6596,6593,6599],"class_list":{"0":"post-66661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-articles","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-jobs","13":"tag-make-it","14":"tag-make-it-land-the-job","15":"tag-make-it-work","16":"tag-makeit","17":"tag-sourcetagnamecnbc-us-source"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}