Dive Brief:
- Ghosting, scams and discrimination plague the job hunt, according to Remote.co’s Job Search Realities & Risks Report, released Wednesday.
- More than a quarter of workers surveyed said they’ve been the victim of a job scam, and half said they’ve been ghosted by an employer. At the same time, more than half said discrimination, including ageism, was one of their main sources of frustration.
- “When looking at the data, it’s easy to see why job seekers are frustrated right now,” said Toni Frana, a career expert at Remote.co. “Ghosting and job scams are seemingly more prevalent than in previous years.”
Dive Insight:
Among those who have been scammed, 12% said it has happened more than once. Meanwhile, a quarter of workers said they narrowly avoided a job scam because they picked up on the warning signs, the report found.
“Such fears add up, and job seekers and workers alike are feeling the pressure. This doesn’t just impact the jobs they want to find and keep, but also the ones they avoid or leave altogether,” Conor McMahon, career advice writer for Remote.co, wrote.
Of the more than 3,000 U.S. workers surveyed, 70% said low pay or inadequate benefits have kept them from accepting a job offer, 69% pointed to a culture issue, and 61% cited a lack of work-life balance.
Workers also said they turned down positions because of a lack of remote or flexible work options (58%), concerns about job security and turnover (50%) and a lack of opportunity for career growth (37%).
Similarly, workers in a September Monster report pointed to “career catfishing.” Seventy-nine percent of those surveyed said they were tricked into taking a job that didn’t match the recruiter’s description; in some cases, there were differences in company culture, the benefits offered or the expectations of the position.
Likewise, a July report by hiring platform Greenhouse found that 72% of the more than 2,200 active job seekers surveyed in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland said they’ve experienced “bait-and-switch” tactics during the hiring process.
