The current political climate isn't only stressing out employees, it's stressing out the job market, too. And job seekers are getting caught in the crossfire.
Seventy-three percent of Americans cited the 2024 elections as a major contributing factor to their increase in anxiety, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Much of that fear pertains to how the ongoing politics will affect not only current employees, but job seekers too. The answer, unfortunately, is that both demographics will face a challenging few months until November.
"We've seen a sort of cycle happen every election year," says Emily Levine, executive vice president at recruitment and advisory firm Career Group Companies. "This year, the big keyword in this election has been 'weird,' and in response we've seen the job market get a bit weird — unpredictable and slower than usual."
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This has manifested itself in a frustrating labor market for job seekers in particular as the political landscape has cemented the shift back toward an employer-facing market. Organizations are the ones calling the shots now, according to Levine, and turning down candidates who used to have the choice of three to five job opportunities at a time.
"People are having to really succumb to the preferences of employers," she says. "Applicants are becoming a lot more flexible with going on site, whereas they used to draw a hard line in the sand about being remote. That's not what was happening just a year after COVID, when everybody was desperate to hire."
Candidates have reported increasingly negative experiences, such as being ghosted by employers after multiple interview rounds, submitting over 100 applications without a response and enduring prolonged recruiting processes. Currently, the average time between the initial interview and a job offer — or rejection — is around 44 days, according to a new hiring trends report from HR firms The Josh Bersin Company and AMS. Jobs classified as "harder to fill" may even stay open for two or three months.
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"Hiring managers are taking a lot longer to make hiring decisions and being a lot more cautious when making those decisions," Levine says. "Employers are also being a lot more conservative with their spending, which also affects the amount of money that they're offering, and this all lends itself to a season of unpredictability overall."
Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that these challenges will disappear after the elections. However, once a party and their policies has officially won, the idea is that employers should have a better understanding of how the economy will look, and this will have a direct effect on the labor market. Until then, Levine encourages job seekers to be flexible and be careful.
"Having a little bit more of an open mind is key," she says. "But don't forget that we're in an active election season and things are polarizing, so unless you know which way [someone's] views lean, you may want to keep from talking about politics during job interviews when it comes to finding a new role right now."
