CHARLOTTE — In today’s market, job seekers are struggling to land jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says October’s unemployment rate was 4.1% or 7.1 million people.
Even more telling, the number of people considered “long-term unemployed,” or out of work for 27 weeks or more, is up to 27% of job seekers. That’s the highest since 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Air Force veteran Levonda Le summed up her job hunt like this: “More deposits than withdrawals at this point.”
She told Channel 9’s Deneige Broom she believes technology is the gatekeeper. That’s why she and fellow veteran Louis Stukes decided to go to a career fair rather than apply to jobs exclusively online.
“I think the biggest thing for me is just making sure that I can kind of get the face time with the employers,” Stukes said.
Despite a long list of qualifications, the Air Force veteran of 22 years says his list of callbacks is short.
“A lot of things are digital,” he said. “You have a lot of AI things out there that you’re kind of competing with, but jobs are like flooded with resumes very quickly.”
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But Catapult HR CEO Cheryl Richards says these two job seekers are on the right path.
“You can never, you know, diminish the value of in-person networking,” Richards said. “It’s where somebody makes a connection with you.”
Catapult supports thousands of small and medium-sized companies around the country with HR services, so Channel 9 asked how people can increase their chances of a human seeing their resume instead of possibly being filtered out by AI systems.
“You have to be very mindful about the word choice that you’re using, keywords that you’re putting in there,“ Richards said. ”You probably want to tailor your resume to the job that you’re applying for, and yes, that takes time.”
She says employers aren’t necessarily slowing down their hiring, they’re just getting more selective.
And if you have that dreaded employment gap on your resume, Richards says not to worry. It’s no longer the red flag it used to be. Her advice: “Own the gap.” Show employers how you’ve grown during that time and quickly pivot to your skills.
She also recommends reconnecting with your professional network by actually using your LinkedIn profile.
Additionally, learn the AI tools that are helpful in your industry and learn skills that AI cannot, such as judgement, empathy and leadership.
There are resources out there for those who need help. Richards says it’s important to utilize tools like Charlotte and NCWorks.
“People are trying to do everything by themselves, but it takes a village to raise a child, and it’s the same thing with the job market,” JaVon Hopkins with Charlotte Works said. “There’s a lot of different state entities or community partners that are out there that are really trying to fill in those gaps that you might be looking for.”
Find a career center near you using the NCWorks Location Search tool here.