Find Freelance Clients in this Ridiculous Job Market

Tips for getting great clients

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

The US unemployment rate is 4.2%, with around 7.2 million Americans out of work. This may not seem like that much, but the current job market is crazy!

Let’s look at a few stats to get started:

• ICE raids are decimating farm workers
• The US labor shortage sits at 70% (5 percentage points below the global average) — meaning 7 out of 10 employers can’t find qualified people for their job openings.
• In May, for the fourth consecutive month, federal employment went down due to DOGE cuts.

Despite the low-ish unemployment rate, people looking for jobs are having an incredibly difficult time.

Part of this is due to inflation and rising wages (which cause more inflation), meaning companies are hiring fewer people. Part is due to shareholders wanting more profit with fewer workers and taking advantage of current employees. Part of it is the oversaturated market — job openings receive hundreds of applicants within hours of being posted.

I spent over 7 months in 2023 looking for a job. As have many, many others.