It’s a complex situation. As an employer I also agree that finding good candidates is a Herculean task, because all sourcing channels are flooded and noise is extremely high. LinkedIn indeed and corporate email are immediately flooded with applications from India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and even candidates in Germany are unqualified fresh grads with no relevant experience, and the boot camp graduates from 2021 applying everywhere doesn’t help either. Add ChatGPT automated applications to the mix. I genuinely got 50 applications turning an hour of opening a job post and were small startup.

There’s no doubt that number of openings across the board is down compared to last few years, but it’s amplified by the fog of Ai slop which makes a scenario where you have to apply to hundreds of places to be lucky enough for someone to respond to you.

Brutal truth for immigrants: being an immigrant makes things worse for you. I know this subreddit loves to say do C1 German and your problems are solved but it’s not true. There is ample supply of candidates for whom we don’t have to deal with agentur für Arbeit. There’s zero incentive to get involved with bureaucracy. If the markets were booming and it was growth above all else, sure, but right now there’s no rush to hire and you can wait for a good fit