this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2026
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Started applying today to put my feelers out there to see if anyone even responds. Like the best I can find is $18 an hour factory work. This was the same kind of work that existed during covid, nothings changed! It's still shit!!

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[–] reaper_cushions@hexbear.net 34 points 3 days ago

I have a master’s degree in physics and the labour agency has tried to push me into jobs that don’t require having finished the German equivalent of high school. It’s genuinely insane right now, I don’t know a single person with comparable qualifications who wasn’t unemployed for at least half a year.

[–] LoveSupreme@hexbear.net 28 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I recently had 1 phone screen and 2 in person interviews for a fucking GROCERY STORE and still got ghosted agony-4horsemen

[–] fox@hexbear.net 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You'd think all they care about is a heartbeat for those sorts of jobs

[–] LoveSupreme@hexbear.net 21 points 3 days ago

i think the job market is so fucked even grocery stores can choose to be picky about who they hire

[–] Carl@hexbear.net 28 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Some channel, I think How Money Works, broke down some recent statistics that were doing the rounds in the capitalist press and why they actually spell doom for the job market. New business registrations are at record highs - but that's because more and more people are giving up on the job market and deciding to try their luck at a small business instead, not to mention people who have a job but are starting a business anyway because it doesn't pay enough, stuff like that.

Anyway I'm one of those people, and I've found that I really like working for myself even if it kinda sucks at times. idk what industry you're in or what credentials you have but if you can make a play for 1099s I would do it.

[–] barrbaric@hexbear.net 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Seems like more and more job listings are also just fake. This year my work started requiring a full job listing and application process (including interviews) for promotions within the same role where all that changes is the pay scale. You ask the people in HR why we're having to do this for roles where literally no external candidate could ever possibly be considered (because they deliberately understaff and wouldn't hire a new employee) and they just stare at you blankly. i-love-not-thinking

Legal, you have to post all positions

[–] PKMKII@hexbear.net 28 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I don’t know what’s sadder, how little $18/hr really is with today’s prices, or that despite that it’s still more than twice the national minimum wage.

[–] segfault11@hexbear.net 26 points 3 days ago (1 children)

the real jokerfying thing is that even low paying jobs are now competitive

[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Trvke. Like I know they’re getting a sick enjoyment out of it.

“Ooooh, we just had sooooo many GREAT choices for this cashier position. We went with the Harvard PhD. Sorry, but that flimsy master’s in Computer Engineering from Berkeley just ain’t good enough in this day and age.”

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

ikr? You think, "wow $18 that's like twice minimum wage!" then you realize minimum wage needed to be $18 back in 2019 to match inflation, and now with the very same inflation running away, well.

[–] Dialectical_Idealist@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure the inflation numbers are bullshit. They keep them intentionally low. But these bs numbers are how people calculate "livable" wages, salary increases, etc. And the divergence between actual and reported inflation has been ongoing for decades.

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

It's like higher order commodity fetishism.

You can reasonably determine the inflation of individual commodities but beyond that it's all about what commodities you decide to include.

[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 26 points 3 days ago (11 children)

This is why i'm trying to get published

But apparently publishers are afraid of a book where cops die by the hundreds and the ending has the protagonists taking over the US's nuclear missile silos and starting a 2nd Civil War

I figure i might need some more clout before anyone wants to touch that right now

Which is why i'm writing up something called I KILL WIZZARDS

I think it'll probably end up a comic or animated series

[–] duderium@hexbear.net 11 points 3 days ago (4 children)

My current literary project has the Chinese invading the USA. I can dream, can’t I? 🥺

[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This was the original version of the 2012 Red Dawn, but they changed it to the DPRK so they could make money in China. Apparently it still wasn't released in China peltier-laugh

[–] duderium@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Except don’t the good guys lose in red dawn? My book has the USA attack china, lose badly, then get invaded and fracture into warring states. I actually wrote the first draft before the iran war started so it’s kind of outdated now 😳.

[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't remember what happens in the shitty new one (all I really remember is the Subway product placement), in the old one all the ”heroic” high school kids die by the end and it's at least a little ambiguous.

[–] duderium@hexbear.net 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oh lol I only saw the old one and got bored when the kids started winning. It was pretty good until that point though.

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[–] fox@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You got something against Rincewind?

[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Rincewind isn't an immortal god-king forcing the people to toil for his own benefit

I mean, i don't think he is, I never finished all the Discworld books

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[–] FALGSConaut@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago

a book where cops die by the hundreds and the ending has the protagonists taking over the US's nuclear missile silos and starting a 2nd Civil War

Lemme know if/when you get it published, sounds sick

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[–] ashinadash@hexbear.net 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I consider myself lucky to have got a "sorry fam u didnt get the job" email from the shitass grocery store job.

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 22 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Let me guess, 10+ years experience and a degree to stock shelves?

I promise you that I passed a coding interview in a language I never actually wrote a line of in my life (SQL) for a job that required 6 years with the language. It took 36 hours of study. It's not even on the order of a college exam.

These numbers couldn't mean less

[–] ashinadash@hexbear.net 12 points 3 days ago

Not stated but that's probably the case yea yea

[–] OffSeasonPrincess@hexbear.net 11 points 3 days ago

-be the store owners friend/relative

[–] Blep@hexbear.net 20 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I be getting told i didnt get enough xp during uni despite working in the field for 2 years.

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 19 points 3 days ago (7 children)

There's no winning with employers.

You're either too overqualified with not enough experience, or just qualified enough without the right experience. Sometimes they'll say you just don't match their company "culture"

Fuck off and die, assholes.

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[–] RION@hexbear.net 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You should tell them you're about to level up and they look like just enough XP

[–] Blep@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago

I tried but then i got stat checked by the job description. 30 points is way too many

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago

$18 an hour is about the most I've ever made at any job.

Until you get everything financially lined up, it's better to have work than no work.

[–] NewOldGuard@lemmy.ml 19 points 3 days ago

I was just in a job interview cycle for a great position and after 4 rounds didn't make it. Only a full month of prep time and technical interviews wasted, doesn't make me feel like im losing my mind at all. Second position like this this year

[–] soyaEnjoyer@hexbear.net 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

i can't even give my labour away for free (well, not quite for free - i deviously intend to eventually get a reference from them so that i can trade my labour elsewhere for food and housing when i'm well enough).

nobody. ever. responds. even the fuckers who came to an event at the jobcenter where they said they don't require references or experience and it's "basically a guaranteed position".

[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 16 points 3 days ago

They literally have no idea what is actually going on in the hiring process, they are just told to say things lol..

[–] Rojo27@hexbear.net 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, things are getting more and more shit. As much I get stressed out with my current job, I know that if I was to leave I would be unemployed for a while and of I did get a job there's a good chance it won't pay as much as I earn now. Everything is so fucked.

[–] MidnightPocket@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago

Hey we're in the same boat there. But, honestly I might take less pay if this job continues to ruin my health.

[–] Rom@hexbear.net 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I've been unemployed since March and sending out applications daily, the most I've gotten was one phone interview which resulted in a rejection email a week later. Shit sucks

[–] Chapo_is_Red@hexbear.net 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Graduated college around 2010. It'll get marginally better. If you're lucky and get an advanced degree, you might get a job making 25$/hr like me (no bennies)

[–] PurrLure@hexbear.net 12 points 3 days ago

I told an older contractor today that 6 months is the minimum amount of time to expect being unemployed and I don't know if she believed me.

Like yeah, I'm not looking forward to the next time I'm unemployed. Thanks to the ever increasing cost of living plus living in one of the worst USA states for unemployment help, I'll probably have to start paying my chunk of rent with debt 2-3 months in. I suppose I could do gig work, but then it's basically picking between ruining my car (the market for used cars is fucked rn and you absolutely need to be employed with half decent credit just to not get screwed on interest) and credit card debt.

[–] MidnightPocket@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago
[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 6 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Fuck working. Find your passion and starve. If we all just work on our projects and dont go into work the US will collapse.

[–] Carl@hexbear.net 14 points 3 days ago

unfortunately nobody is giving me rent or food money for my godot and javascript arcade game remakes so

[–] StalinsGiantSpoon@hexbear.net 6 points 3 days ago

it's good to dream

[–] Krem@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

like that racist WWII propaganda poster but good

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