The Great Disconnect: Overlooked Talent, Overwhelmed Employers

Key Takeaways

• 45% of job seekers say the job search process has gotten more challenging.
• Meanwhile, employers are drowning in mismatches, and almost half say they struggle to find qualified candidates.
• Skills-first hiring can help. 

For most of the last year, Ben Classen has been on the job hunt. A marketer and brand leader, his resume is speckled with industry awards and household names. But like millions of job seekers, he’s being buffeted by the waves of an intense job market. Poor communication, convoluted processes and unclear expectations have especially frustrated him. At one point, Classen received a message from a recruiter after they had gone silent for five months.

“I know this decision is a luxury many people don’t have, but if that’s how you’re treating me, then it’s an automatic no,” he says. “I won’t work for your company.” 

For their part, hiring managers and employers say they struggle to connect with the right candidates: 58% of employers surveyed agree that hiring has become more difficult. (The data insights in this installment of the “Great Disconnect” series are from Indeed’s recently released Smarter Hiring report.)

“Employers get frustrated when they can’t find candidates who fit their qualifications,” says Matt Berndt, who heads up Indeed’s Job Search Academy, a free career development program. “But the qualifications they’re using really aren’t the ones they should use to screen, recruit and ultimately interview candidates.”

In short: Too often, neither job seekers nor employers can find what they’re looking for. Here’s how companies and candidates experience this disconnect.

This is the third in a series of articles about “The Great Disconnect,” which explores the growing chasm between what job seekers need and what employers offer. For more, see: 

The Great Disconnect: Closing the Gap Between Job Seekers and Employers
The Great Disconnect: What Job Seekers Want vs. What Employers Offer

Job Seekers Are Hitting a Wall

Upload resume. Press send. And then nothing. Many job seekers feel like they’re sending their applications into the void, or that the hiring process is a maze with no clear path. In the Smarter Hiring report, 45% of job seekers say the process has become more challenging.

“This is beyond anything I’ve experienced,” says Andrea Lee, a social media director with 15 years of experience working with beauty and lifestyle brands. She has spent the last three months applying to and interviewing for full-time roles, and she says it feels like the white-collar job market is imploding.

“You do everything right,” Lee says. “You get the right degree, the right experience, the right portfolio. But those things that used to matter so much don’t make a dent anymore.”

Melissa Grabiner, a talent acquisition leader who has worked across healthcare, finance and tech, says the market is in the throes of what she calls a “white-collar recession.”

“I’ve been recruiting for two decades,” Grabiner says. “I’ve never seen the corporate job market this challenging and competitive.”

Some job seekers say that long hiring times, paused or canceled roles, excessive screening and recruiters ghosting candidates after endless interviews have become the new normal. Candidates wait in limbo — emotionally drained and financially stressed — for updates that never come. A lack of transparency adds to the uncertainty: 31% of job seekers report that unclear or absent salary information can make applications feel like a waste of time.

“Saying a salary is competitive is meaningless to me,” Lee says. “When I see that I scroll right past.”

Finally, candidates overwhelmingly value development opportunities over higher salaries. As one job seeker put it, “Skills are permanent. Money isn’t.” Three-quarters of job seekers prioritize growth potential when deciding whether to apply for a role, yet 41% say they don’t learn about these opportunities until the interview stage.

The grievances are signals for employers to improve. 

“A company’s culture starts at the top. At the C-suite level, a lot of companies don’t have a full grasp of what their candidate experience is like,” says Grabiner, who encourages HR leaders to apply to open roles at their companies to witness the process first-hand. “They should always try to understand the candidate’s experience.”

Employers Are Drowning in Mismatches

While job seekers feel like they’re hitting a brick wall, employers and recruiters often feel awash in a sea of mismatched applications. 

One of the biggest complaints is the quality of applications they’re getting. Almost half of managers (42%) say they struggle to find qualified candidates. They cast a wide net but end up pulling in the wrong catch.

Jenna LaBella, VP of Client Success at Indeed, says she believes that for some employers the trouble might be coming from inside the house.

“The employer with the fastest approach often gets the best talent,” LaBella says. “But employers often make the process too laborious. It has too many people, it includes too many steps. This delays hiring and introduces bias.”

It starts with the job description. Overly broad or vague descriptions lead to mismatches before the process even starts.

“There’s opportunity for job descriptions to be more specific, to reduce opacity and to be more realistic about what the job entails,” says Patrick Harrison, VP of Marketing at Indeed. “Job descriptions can inadvertently be too extensive. It makes it more difficult to hire because you’re not focusing your time looking for the skills that will make the difference in the role.”

According to Harrison, job seekers believe the main reason they miss out on roles is that they’re in competition with an overwhelming number of quality candidates — for an underwhelming selection of jobs. So many aim for efficiency over selectivity when applying for jobs. This floods employers with applications that often don’t match the role, leading to indecisiveness during the hiring decision. 

LaBella says the mismatches stop when employers thoroughly understand the skills they’re hiring for.

“The immediate change I’d recommend is to be really clear about what the job requirements are. Employers should question their assumptions on what’s needed for the role and what isn’t,” LaBella says. (Skills-first hiring can help with this, as we’ll show in the fourth installment of this series.)

Closing the Gap Benefits Everyone

The friction between job seekers and employers today underlines the vital need for empathy and clear communication. Job seekers are navigating a maze of frustration and uncertainty, while employers are grappling with an overwhelming influx of mismatched applications. To bridge this gap, we need to embrace a different approach to hiring. 

“Empathy and accountability need to come into the process more. Otherwise, you’re not going to find the best people,” says Classen, the job-seeking brand marketer. “There’s a human behind every resume.”

Acknowledging our shared humanity in this process is essential. When we remember this, we open the door to genuine connections and stronger fits for both employers and candidates. This leads to a hiring experience that’s more enlightening, rewarding and, ultimately, more human.

What are the best ways to bridge this disconnect? Start with skills-first hiring. Read the fourth installment in our series here.

The Great Disconnect: Skills-First Solutions for Smarter Hiring