The Real State of Jobs

I am a real job hunter and this is what my experience has been like the last few years

I retired some time ago. I started looking for employment for various reasons beginning in 2020 during the pandemic

In 2020 I moved from Sacramento to the East Bay of San Francisco. This move was partially because I have a daughter in the area. The costs here are higher so I began a job search for both full time and part time employment. In 2021 I found a fun job working at an Electric Bike store. I had not looked long before finding this opportunity. That job ended abruptly after the holidays and I was looking again in early 2022. A couple months later I was working part time for a car dealership. I did that for about eight months and then the car business got really slow. Fast forward and a couple months later I found a job where my dog and I worked at a retirement home. I worked there and another retirement home until July of 2025. Both myself and my dog Willie had jobs.

I am looking again using all the same job portals and going directly to corporation websites with no luck so far. I see very few jobs even compared to my searches during the pandemic years. The number of jobs compared to postings in the recovery years is even bleaker according to my searches and personal observations. I wanted to find out more about this and discover if my experience is unique or if other job seekers are experiencing the same dearth of jobs everywhere they look. I asked ChatGPT for help keeping my emotions out of this article and being an average guy from the Pacific Northwest there was no way I wanted to sound like a politician. Here is the ChatGPT take:

It’s Not Just Me: The Job Market Really Has Slowed
I regularly search for work on Indeed, FlexJobs, and company websites. In 2021, during the pandemic recovery, I found a job. Today, listings feel thinner and competition feels tougher.
It turns out this isn’t just anecdotal. The national data shows a clear shift.
Job Openings Have Declined
According to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, total job openings surged in 2021–2022 and have fallen significantly since.
To view the official long-term chart, visit the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED database:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/JTSJOL
You’ll see the dramatic spike during the hiring boom — and the steady cooling that followed.
Online Job Postings Have Flattened
Data from Indeed Hiring Lab shows a similar pattern. Job postings surged well above pre-pandemic levels but have slowed or flattened since 2022.
To view Indeed’s job posting data, visit:
https://www.hiringlab.org/data/
The trend reflects softer employer demand compared to the peak hiring years.

Competition Has Increased
When job openings decline but job seekers remain active, competition increases.
You can compare job openings to unemployed workers using the public data tools at the Federal Reserve’s FRED database:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/
Search for:
JTSJOL (Job Openings)
UNEMPLOY (Unemployed Persons)
In 2021, openings exceeded unemployed workers. That gap has narrowed considerably.
Bottom Line
Headline unemployment numbers may look steady. But underlying hiring demand has cooled, online postings have slowed, and competition per job has increased.
For those actively searching — especially retirees seeking flexible or part-time work — the shift feels real.
And the data backs it up.