Episode Transcript

Chris Villanueva 0:04
One in five job postings are found fake or not filled by companies according to a Wall Street Journal report. My name is Chris Villanueva, and this is the Let’s Eat, Grandma Career Warrior Podcast. We help mid to senior level professionals land a dream job and feel supported along the way, so they have a partner in their job search. SoI hope you feel supported by this episode and upcoming ones. You’re going to hear resume tactics, career coaching and updates that will help you with your career this is our January leg update, where we’re going to cover the job search news to give you a leg up in your job search.

Chris Villanueva 0:36
Today, we’re going to cover a report showing that one in five job postings are found fake. We’re also going to discuss what is going on in the current job market, as well as the top five fastest growing positions according to LinkedIn, it is January. I am so freaking excited because it is my birthday on Saturday. I do love birthdays. It’s just been such an exciting year. So far, I have moved from Austin.

Chris Villanueva 1:05
We’re still going to be headquartered here in Austin, but doing some business in San Antonio, where I grew up, starting a family here at least the third member of our family here in July. So I’m so excited to have a boy coming. And these are awesome news, pieces of news that have filled my life. So I hope everything is going well for you. Just a quick update. We’re going back to weekly episodes, because I have found that having more frequency for job seekers, it’s going to be morevaluable for you, you’re going to have someone who can really rely o for good information and advice every single week.

Chris Villanueva 1:41
So we are going to release these episodes every Monday morning. So stay tuned and stay excited. So this is a kind of a new thing we’re doing here with the job search muse. I want you to feel encouraged as a job seeker with what you were doing as a professional to get your resume out there. And I don’t want you to feel like these news updates are going to be, you know, dreary or bad news. In fact, I want you to just take in this information as it comes as something that you can have at the back of your head.

Chris Villanueva 2:15
So if you’re met with more resistance, for example, than last year, maybe looked and see what’s going on with your particular industry. If you are met with fake job postings, then maybe tweak your job search strategy a little bit here, and know that it’s not you, it’s not your resume. Sometimes it may just be that you’re you’re not getting seen. So going over the use today, the first thing I’m going to report on is that one in five job postings have been found fake or not filled at all by the job posters.

Chris Villanueva 2:46
This is according to the Wall Street Journal, there was a job seeker that was commenting on that same article saying that basically they sent out over 260 job applications, but she received only five final round interviews and, sadly, no offer. So this basically led her to have a pretty much like this crisis to say, Oh my gosh. How. Why am I doing this right here? What is the whole purpose of sending out these applications and working hour after hour and being met with that so you may be listening to this podcast right now having that same sort of experience, and I’ve spoken to many people who have had that experience. And it may be that ghost jobs are influencing the way that we are being met in the job market right now.

Chris Villanueva 3:40
Senior coach from Arizona State University’s School of Global Management, Glenn Loveland reported, said in that article that human to human networking is going to become increasingly critical in the modern hiring market. Well, well, well, the thing that we’ve been saying since day one in this podcast episode, since 2018 and now more than ever, this is something that is becoming prevalent. The same person says that authentic relationships are the bedrock of sustainable success.

Chris Villanueva 4:12
The days of simply uploading resumes to job boards and hoping for the best are rapidly fading. I would actually say, don’t stop applying online, because this is still 2025, and this is still the way that a lot of people are getting positions right now. It is still the public face of how a lot of people make their job listings available. This is how a lot of people can figure out what is going on in the job market generally, but use that as just one part of your job search. But I would say, put the majority of your time, especially if you are going to have a harder job search, put the majority of your time focusing on those human to human relationships and networking.

Chris Villanueva 4:53
It’s going to make a huge difference for you. And if you’ve been doing that, I commend you for what you’re doing. And if you’re not met by. Success. Now, I guarantee you, if you keep doing it over and over and over again and learning something, you are going to get a good job. I’m telling you, you’re going to get a good job. There’s no need to fear, there’s no need to think that all of that has been wasted time because it’s not. But continue to put your stake, continue to put your time into the building those authentic relationships.

Chris Villanueva 5:23
So we’re going to talk about hiring in just one second. What that has looked like recently, hiring, layoffs, quits, all of it, but first, just a quick pause to tell you about Let’s Eat, Grandma, you don’t have to go at your resume alone. If you are a mid or senior level professional looking to make a change in your career. If you are applying for jobs and need a new resume, head on over to letseatgrandma.com to find out how you can get started. We have a very personal team. We don’t rely on AI, like all of these other services to cheapen our product, to give you something that AI could have given you anyway.

Chris Villanueva 5:59
We are very, personal, and we will make sure that you have a good strategy with your resume and job search materials letseatgrandma.com We hope to see your name come through our system. All right, so let’s talk about the recent report. This comes from the employment situation, the most recent one that was released for December. This is the one that came out last week. We saw that total Non Farm Payroll employment increased by 256,000 in December, the unemployment rate changed very little at 4.1% according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Chris Villanueva 6:34
I would say that that 4.1% is pretty encouraging news. Unemployment percentage hasn’t shot up. It hasn’t got into anything too crazy. It seems rather stable. In fact, the indeed hiring lab, the indeed hiring lab economist Corey Stahl says that layoffs and unemployment rate have remained encouraging low however, hiring and quits still remain near decade lows, which is concerning.

Chris Villanueva 6:59
So a lot of people may feel like they are locked in to their current job. Again, I’m telling you, as a career warrior, don’t feel scared by the news, and don’t do what everyone else is doing, but this is just what some of the numbers have shown. Meanwhile, the quits rate confirms basically what this has seen. It edged down from 1.9% in November, edged down from 2.1% in October, indicating that workers in November at least were less confident in finding a job if they do quit their current one. And I’d be not surprised at all if the next report says that December shows the same thing.

Chris Villanueva 7:34
However, we are in January right now, and employers are kicking up and ramping up hiring, as they do every single year. So now is an excellent time to really move forward and just ignore some of the things that you’re seeing in the past. Just again, keep it at the back of your head, but push forward and forge forward with your job search. There are some fast growing positions according to LinkedIn, so I’m going to list of top five positions that are growing according to LinkedIn, the first one should not surprise you at all, given everything that’s going on, but it is artificial intelligence engineer.

Chris Villanueva 8:12
These are people that design, develop and implement AI models so that they can solve big problems. Often, you are going to have a company that wants to use AI as more of that gets adopted by companies, and we need smart people to come up with algorithms to move these companies forward. We found a lot of these positions were in San Francisco, New York City and Boston.

Chris Villanueva 8:37
Second to that are artificial intelligence consultants. These are people who assist with the adoption of AI technology. You’re not going to be actually typing in the stuff, if you know what I mean, you’re not going to be getting lost in the midnight sauce. What the heck am I saying? You’re you’re not going to be coding, but you are going to be helping to meet business goals and improve operations. Again, this is found in cities like San Francisco, New York and Washington, DC, the one that has nothing to do with that, the third fastest growing job is physical therapist. So our lovely PTS assist to relieve pain, improve mobility and prevent and recover from injuries. I love a good PT. I’ve had friends who have worked with them.

Chris Villanueva 9:19
I didn’t really have a PT per se, but I had someone who helped fix my lower back issues and realize that I should be not bench pressing so much. I should be focusing more on core strength. Anyway, the fourth fastest growing job, according to LinkedIn, was Workforce Development Manager. Shout out to our HR family and friends. I went to the HR conference, the biggest one in 2022 and these are folks who are making a difference in changing the world. Workforce development managers design and implement training programs that allow employees to upskill, and they help to align workforce capabilities with organizational needs.

Chris Villanueva 9:59
You’ll find these people. In LA, Columbus, Ohio and Seattle, the last fast growing job, according to LinkedIn, and this one surprised me, was a Travel Advisor, folks who can help plan and book travel arrangements, including transportation, accommodations and activities. Again, this one would surprise me, because we are in the world of Google, you know, TripAdvisor, even chatgpt getting suggestions. But it makes me really happy that we can rely on folks to help do these sort of things and to help make our lives easier.

Chris Villanueva 10:32
So these are the top five fast growing positions according to LinkedIn. Of course, these are not telling you what jobs to apply for. Do your own research here, but do pay attention to some trends. Maybe your particular job is growing faster in one industry rather than in another. So it could be time for a pivot in your career, even though you’re going to be doing similar things.

Chris Villanueva 10:55
So this was our January leg update. Next week we’re going are going to take direct Q A from you, the job seeker. You can ask any question about your resume. Head on over to letseatgrandma.com and submit a resume critique if you would like the opportunity to appear on the podcast as a anonymous question. So I guess you’re not appearing, but you’re, you’re kind of just like showing forth with your words, which is, which is, it’s a good thing.

Chris Villanueva 11:21
So thanks so much for tuning in. Can’t wait to see you next time. Take care. Career Warrior Podcast, and before you go, remember, if you’re not seeing the results you want in your job, search our highly trained team of professional resume writers here at Let’s Eat, Grandma can help head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast/ to get a free resume critique and $70 off any one of our resume writing packages. We talk all the time on the show about the importance of being targeted in your job search, and with our unique writing process and focus on individual attention, you’ll get a resume cover letter and LinkedIn profile that are highly customized and tailored to your goals to help you get hired faster again, head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast/ Thanks, and I’ll see you next time you.