What used to be easy to be hired for a low-paid job or a job making minimum wage, has become an unwanted task for job seekers and keeping the “now hiring” sign on employers’ doors.
Job seekers feel the recruitment and interview process from employers has become too tedious, especially when the outcome is rejection. A woman named Zahara, 20, said her interview for a crew member position at a Wingstop location was “a waste of time,” The Guardian reports. The gig paid $14.53 USD, a little over the minimum wage for her age range, with the interview process including being asked to complete quizzes, rank the importance of various kitchen items, and finish an online application with 10 paragraphs inquiring about her work experience.
She received a short rejection email some days later. “What a joke,” she said.
Martin Warnes, managing director of the job website Reed in the United Kingdom, says hiring staff has become more costly and risky for businesses, in addition to unemployment rates reaching their highest at 5.2% in close to five years. Its reason such as these as to why Warnes says businesses are “putting more emphasis on pre-employment screening” in an effort to help evidence that they’re bringing the right person into the business.“
But at what cost?
Eve, 19, applied for a floor sales associate position at a retail giant. She thought everything would be easy after being invited for a 90-minute group interview with 20 other candidates. But then she said things took a turn, making the interview feel like a public speaking exercise, saying “it was nerve-racking.” Then, Eve said the group was split up and asked to create an outfit for Lady Gaga before talking about it to the rest of the group. “I was really desperate for the job … I’ve worked in shops before, and I can very easily speak to customers. But this was about talking in front of a big group of people. Speaking to one customer is different from speaking in front of 20 people,” she said.
“It’s like The Hunger Games, but you’re all trying to get a job in a shop where you’re going to be folding clothes all day, for just over minimum wage.”
Head of research at Lancaster University-based thinktank, the Work Foundation, Alice Martin, feels employers are making things harder for themselves with the recruitment process, claiming it’s all because “they’re taking advantage to some extent of the fact that there are that many people out there who need the job.”
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the unemployment rate isn’t all that better but not as bad. According to The New York Times, between January and February 2026, the unemployment rate fell from 4.4 percent to 4.3 percent, suggesting stability in the labor market but proving there is more work to be done. So those employed at any level should celebrate.
Like a woman who goes by the name @therealskeezyd on X. She went viral for celebrating being employed by Costco after almost three months of being unemployed.
Some social media users were clowning her but then Costco was celebrated for being what is described as a great employer. “Man, I’ve been trying to get a job at Costco for sooo long, I know somebody who works at the door checking receipts and makes $25/hour,” one social media comment read.
Another said, “They must not know that Costco’s employee turnover rate…She hit a lick on that one!!”
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