How long does it take to find a job? The answer may surprise you. It, too, will strengthen your resolve to have in place an emergency fund to weather the storm.
Updated: Aug. 2023
Layoffs! Layoffs! Everywhere!
It’s been a little under a year since Elon Musk started the trend of layoffs in November 2022. He started this by taking Twitter back to a private company. As a private company, he could do a lot more than he would have been able to as a publicly traded company. He could fire everyone without any C-level approval. After all, he’s the owner of Twitter (now called X). As a publicly-traded company, he would have had to go through a lot more legal hoops to do what he wanted. Typically, investors freak out when layoffs happen. The stock prices tank. Musk would need to worry about these things in a massive layoff.
In essence, Musk gave the green light to companies all around the United States to start layoffs when he laid off more than half his staff (2000+) at Twitter to cut down costs and stop his company from hemorrhaging money. Soon, many other companies like Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, Lyft, Walmart, Indeed, Google, NPR, Boeing, and Lucid Motors followed suite. To date, in 2023 alone there were 225,000 layoffs!
It Takes Time to Find a Job
On average, it takes anywhere from 1 to 6 months to find a job! This value is across the board because the time it takes you to find a new job depends on several things:
- The demand in your industry
- The demand for your skillsets
- The number of people in your industry
Currently 1.6 to 2 applicants exist for every 1 job posting. It takes 21 to 80 job applications to get one job offer. Your chances of landing a job go up to 30.89% if you apply to 21 to 80 jobs. From 11 to 20 jobs, your chances are 29.48%. If you apply to more than 81 jobs, then your chances are 20.36%. So, the sweet point for your return on investment is when you apply to 21 to 80 jobs. (Source: Zippia)
Even if you applied today and started the interview process tomorrow, it still takes on average 44 days to get hired on. Many reasons are here for this long time frame. For one, most HR jobs are gone. This means the hiring managers need to figure out how to bring a new employee into the company. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean the company is getting better candidates. Furthermore, more employees want to get involved in the hiring process, which just adds more time to the process.
What My Recruiter Said About How Long It Takes to Find a Job in August 2023
There’s the average time that is rather vague and non-specific. Then, there’s the average time based on recent data. My recruiter said that it takes about 1.5 months to find a job in tech (Aug. 2023).
Are We in a Recession?
The layoffs from 2022 to 2023 resulted in a large number of jobs being shed. In 2023 alone, 225,000 jobs were shed. It sure seems like we are in the midst of a recession. With so many jobs lost, it’s hard to believe the economy is still going strong. There are still fears of a recession looming on the horizon. Companies are uncertain and leery of hiring as fast as they did during the Great Recession.
For now, your chances are good that you will find a new job sooner than later.
The Impact of Job Loss
When Elon Musk laid off 2000+ employees, that seemed like a lot of people at the time. Soon, Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Meta) would lay off 10,000+ employees. He would have the tenacity to say that this was the toughest thing he’s ever done and say that he’s 100% responsible. Of course, he is 100% responsible. He made the decision. But is it the hardest thing? Not by a longshot! He fired 10,000+ employees while hiding behind his camera. Hard is doing it one by one in person. Hard is giving employees the dignity they deserve by giving them time to process the information. It is hard is standing there while your employees cry and try to understand what’s happened to them.
After all, losing a job is like losing a loved one. We’ve in essence lost our identities and our daily routine of the familiar and the comfortable. We have lost being able to see the friends who we work with every day. That loss is profound. We give Mark Zuckerberg a big, fat “F” grade for how he handled the layoffs at his company.
Weathering the Loss During the Time It Takes to Find a New Job
There’s no such thing as job security. The best “job security” you can have is an emergency fund, your network, and constant upgrading of your skillsets to make yourself marketable and valuable.
Building your network is simple. Anyone you’ve ever worked with in the past is in your network. Then, there are the referrals your friends and coworkers make to recruiters looking to fill a position. You just joined their network by virtual of knowing your friend. LinkedIn is a great tool for networking for these reasons.
You’ll have to get to work to proactively head off the anxiety and stress that comes with a sudden loss in income and routine. You’ve been used to going to a certain place every day and seeing the same people every day. For some of us, our coworkers are more than coworkers. They are our friends. Now, your routine has been disrupted. It’s jarring to say the least. Here are some tips to help you survive unemployment.
Remote Jobs Are All the Rage!
Who wouldn’t want to work from home? For example, my commute is on average over an hour each way. That’s extra time I could spend on things that matter to me outside of work. Working from home has its advantages. Yet, when you apply to a job that is remote you’re competing with people from all over the world! Hybrid positions, where you’re required to be in the office part of the time, are better opportunities because the competition is lower.
Basically, if you’re applying for 100% remote jobs then expect the job search process to take longer.
Conclusion
If you were hoping for a clear-cut answer, you probably didn’t want to hear about the large time range to the question of “how long does it take to find a job?” It takes anywhere from 1 to 6 months to find a job, with the average being 44 days. Seeing this, it’s advantageous to have an emergency fund that can help you survive unemployment for up to a year. On average, 22% of applicants who apply for any given job land an interview. Your chances of getting an interview go up to 50% when you get an employee referral.
To secure yourself during unemployment, always have these things:
- An emergency fund
- A strong network
- Constant learning to up your skillsets and marketability