Stephanie Barnes
Earlier this year, the U.S. Labor Department reported that job openings went up to a two-year high.
As the United States begins moving towards a post-pandemic world, more and more businesses are reopening their doors, which means they’ll need to hire more employees.
However, businesses are complaining about labor shortages. Many big companies are claiming that people simply don’t want to work these days, which isn’t the case.
In an attempt to expose the real issues plaguing the system, Joey Holz, decided to apply for 60 different entry-level jobs. Holz shared his experience via a Facebook post, which quickly went viral.
“So I decided to do a blind study because I keep hearing about all of these jobs available out there, and how nobody wants to work, and everybody’s hiring, and they can’t find help,” he began the post.
The 37-year-old Florida worker said he applied to two jobs every day since the 1st of September. Holz picked jobs by “finding Facebook posts in our local Fort Myers/Lee County groups where employers were talking about how hard it was to find help. I specifically sought out employers who blamed unemployment benefits for them not having employees.”
He continues:
By the end of it, he said he received 16 responses via email, had phone conversations with four of those 16 people, but only landed one in-person interview.
“The most hilarious thing is the one job interview I have done so far was offering minimum wage for pay which is around $8.60 and when I said that’s weird because your advertisement says that you’re starting pay is $10 an hour, they said it’ll be 10 when the minimum wage goes up later this month, you’ll start at $8.65. When I asked what the average hours were, they said about 20….I was like, that’s weird because your advertisement states full-time…they said you can move up to full-time after 6 months based on your performance,” he wrote.
Joey Holz via Facebook
“Are these places hiring? That’s what their internet ad said. Are they desperate for HELP? Yes, according to their loud lamentations on Facebook, but so far 1 interview (where the advertised hours and pay were misrepresented) after 58 applications says y’all aren’t desperate for workers, you just miss your slaves.”
After Holz’s post went viral, many chimed in to share their own experiences and gratitude.
Joey has a Podcast where he talks about valuing your own labor, valuing your own experience, fighting for equality, and other stuff related to this post. Check it out here.
