Craigslist? ZERO spam emails? Sure.

Sad.

Ok, a few things to note before jumping on the 'omg' bandwagon. Many cities in Virginia are in the top 10 computers per capita category. Part time positions are always in high demand because high school students, college students, and people with adjustable schedules can apply (housewives). Given these factors AND the economy, I don't doubt the numbers. I think the other factors at play have much more to do with it than the economy, as many family members of mine in Virginia are actually on "job-overload" as they had 3-4 jobs and had to drop a few.

@Ash78: Yeah. While I'm sure she got an inordinate number of emails for a part-time evening position, I seriously doubt they're ALL legit. Just because something doesn't go into your spam folder doesn't mean it's not spam.

@Ash78: ?
I frequently post to craigslist (2-3 times a week) and I've never received any spam. What are you inferring?

-Piaculum

This makes me fear my chances of finding a new job, having been laid off this week. Granted I work in a more technical field than a receptionist, but this does not bode well.

I wonder how many of them are Nigerians offering to send a secretary for a nominal down-payment.

I'm willing to bet that 3240 of those are some form of scam, spam, or sham.

That's why I don't bother looking for a new job right now. It's not that a better job isn't out there, it's that I'd be competing with a thousands of unemployed people that are probably a lot more qualified than me.

Damn, I gotta beat out 3519 other people?

@Piaculum: I post about once a week and get about 50% spam/scam emails. Maybe it's just endemic to the car listings?

My husband got laid off yesterday after being told his department had been deemed safe from cuts (our employer is going thru large-scale layoffs right now), so this depresses the hell out of me. Sigh.

Also, I've posted to Craigslist before and haven't gotten spammed. I'd be willing to believe this is accurate.

I'd be willing to bet most of the people who are applying for the receptionist job are similarly overqualified...

@MJ Hammonds: I would agree as I have been testing the market in fear of what is to come, applying for jobs at 1/3 my pay and I still don't get any response.... Then again when they see the people that are overqualified they prob just trash the resume.

@Ash78: Last time I sold a car on craigslist, I was receiving about 50% scam emails. I updated the listing with the standard "attention scammers; cash only, local only" and it completely eliminated the scam emails.

@nataku83: I may try that, thanks. I sort of assumed that verbiage was just wasting your breath, as scammers aren't the sort of people to follow rules or guidelines.

I can attest to that. A lot of the candidates I'm working with now I had contacted a few months ago and they were happily employed, til out of the blue they contact me and said they were laid off.

I hope things get better because its hard for me to tell someone desperate for a job that I have no open leads for them.

My company was looking for an entry-level marketing associate, something we'd normally get a few dozen resumes for... This time, we got over 400, including quite a few that had 10+ years experience, so they were vastly overqualified.

It's definitely a bit scary out there right now. I'm very thankful to be working at a place that's actually doing well enough to be hiring right now, rather than firing. (Especially with a baby due in 2 weeks, and my wife's employer filing bankruptcy a couple of weeks ago, although she still has her job for now.)

I saw this in my area too, I applied for a full time admin job and they said they had 300 applicants in 3 days. Then they narrowed it down to 25, to 4, then to me!

I was one of the lucky ones here in Ohio, I was only unemployed a week!

@Ash78: Ash, I was the one who wrote to Ben and sent the screen capture. Coupled with Craigslist's own ability to filter spam, and Comcast's ability to filter spam, AND Outlook's ability to filter spam, this is indeed a screen cap with ZERO spam included.

I still have 2800 to go. :(

I didn't make it safely through the Home Depot cuts on Monday.

I must have put out a bunch of applications already, and I'm sure that half, if not more, won't even be looked at due to the sheer number of applicants.

Depressing.

@flairness: Wow...I guess a combination of kudos and condolences is required! :D

I've been looking for a job for months, and I've about given up. I've just graduated college, and it sometimes feels like all I have to show for it is a worthless piece of paper. I really hope something happens soon so I don't have to keep depending on the parents for things. The guilt is terrible.

@lars2112: Take things off your resume. You don't have to list all of your experience.

Interesting, I place an ad looking for an experienced Network Admin in the Sillycon Valley and I get nothing but crap resumes, but a part time receptionist gets this kind of response. I guess the IT industry isn't taking a hit as bad as others or something?

Virginia's got a pretty good employment situation. But as always, unskilled jobs with easy hours are in high demand and low supply.

@Caitfish:

When I was looking, it took me over a year. I actually had more than one place I applied to send me correspondence that said, "We received over 200 [or whatever] apps for the position. You didn't get it. So sorry!"

Thanks for telling me that.

I kept looking and eventually found this job. Keep plugging away. I know how you feel about the degree, too. I'm sometimes tempted to use mine to line a birdcage or something.

That is depressing. My company is currently getting bought out and I might end up in unemployment line in a month. I'm hoping they keep us around for a little while longer, hopefully until things turn around some.

@Ash78: Agreed. Even if they were 50% scams anyway, that's still 1760 legit Emails to go through!

@flairness: DEAR MR. SIR FAIRNESS,

I GIMBANDI OF COLWIST, NIGERIA AM WRITING TO RESPOND TO YOU NEED OF RECEPTIONIST. I WOULD LIKE VERY MUCH WORK YOU FOR, UNFORTUNATLY, I AM IN A DIFFICULT FINANCIAL SITUATION. I HAVE A CHECK FOR $456,454.87 USD, HOWEVER ICANNOT DEPOSIT THIS CHECK AS THEY WILL TAKE 90% IN FEES. IF YOU COULD CASH CHECK FOR ME, I WILL BE HAPPY TO GIVE YOU 50% AS A FEE. JUST WESTERN UNION THE OTHER 50% AND I WILL BE ABLE TO COME WORK YOU FOR IMMIDEIATLY.

PLEASE RESPOND SOON AS [GENARIC TIMLY SITUATION].

SINERLY,
GIMBANDI

I don't get this. My company (small, 25 person) currently has 3 open positions, good, full time positions, and we can't find ANYONE qualified. Of course, the managers tend to be morons, so maybe they're just not looking correctly.

@Borborygm: This is absolutely correct. A receptionist job generally pays better than working retail or in fast food, but doesn't need much of a skill set to start out. I posted an ad for an evening office assistant on craigslist and got about 300 replies in 12 hours. 90% of them were stay at home mom's that wanted to get out and do something in the evening hours so they could have extra spending money. I ended up hiring a broke college student who needed the job badly and it worked out great. Some types of jobs just get numbers that are skewed because they are appealing to a broader set of people. I know I'd rather sit at a desk and answer phones and greet people than stand up at a job where I have to deal with entitled customers all day.

@DaoKaioshin: I just graduated from college on December 14th with a computer science degree, I had two job offers on the table by Friday of last week. Taking into account business downtime for Christmas and the New Year thats not too bad. If you're in a technical field I wouldn't worry too much.

@oilburner: Or perhaps it's because no one can afford the high cost of living out there.

I have always found that part-time openings generate a lot more interest, especially if the position is viewed as one that doesn't require much specialized experience (and isn't retail). I'll bet 1/2 of those are already working full-time and want an after-hours gig to generate extra income (even if that's not what it says in the job posting...people don't take the time to read job requirements).

I wish my group could get responses like this. We are actually going out and recruiting talent. We have positions that we simply can't fill. If anyone wants to do mechanical design work, has experience with auto-cad and Pro-E and is willing to live in the KC metro, I've got a job for you.

@oilburner: You are correct, the IT industry in general is still stable and there are new openings still coming through, but you'll still have people being laid off if they worked at a firm thats in a hard hit industry, like finance.

1.4 million people were at Obama's inauguration. The amazing thing? Only 14 people missed work.

For those of you that are complaining and voted for Obama and people like Nancy Pelosi, I'd get on the phone and give them an earful of your own rhetoric.

Call your congress people and senators. Those idiots are the ones that deserve to be out on the street, begging for work. Instead, their only concern is to figure out how they can stay in power and look good in the press. They're giving free money to rich bankers and automobile executives because they can't think of anything else to do.

The Post Office wants to cut back on delivery days. That's a great idea. Let's everyone cut jobs. I think if you go back to building bridges, dams, and other public works projects, you'll put people back to work, give them some security, they can put food on the table. Giving away free money means you put Bubba on the couch, eating cheesy-poofs and drinking cheap beer all day long because someone re-mortgaged his house and forgave some of his debts because he's laid off. That's not good for the economy.

@Wormfather is Wormfather: Win.

@Ash78: You'd be amazed. I think they really are looking for the most gullible people - if you show the slightest bit of awareness of scams, they just pass and go on to the next ad. Of course you may get more sophisticated scams perpetrated by locals, but you need to watch out for that sort of thing anyway (the guy who bought my car never registered it, but at least his cash was legit).

@Wormfather is Wormfather: Beautiful beautiful money! Where do I sign?

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: Dang, I'm actually QUITTING my job in VA (I'm the one that sent the tip) next month and moving (jobless) to KC.

I'm going into education though, so I don't think it'd be a good fit. But if you know of anyone who needs a babysitter/nanny/PT errand runner, hit me up! :P

@Caitfish: It took me about 5 months in a good economy with an engineering degree. The process isn't quick, especially if you have a humanities degree.

@yikz: LOL. Political wank.

If it is a Craigslist job posting 75% of those responses are some form of spam or other junk that is not applicant replies.

@flairness: Word to the wise, teach on the KS side. KCMO schools are horrible although they are always hiring. If you want to find babysitters there is a large market in Leawood and parts of western Olathe, two of the wealthier parts of town.

@Caitfish: I feel the same way. I did get a job right out of college (2007) worked there for 8 months and quit. The place was horrible, and they closed just a few months after I left. I've been unemployed ever since. The worst part is I've got thousands of dollars in student loans to pay, and no way to pay them. I almost regret going to college. (Almost)

@flairness: How will you sort among so many?

@valsharess1: And if you're a student, lots of receptionist jobs offer lots of homework time.