We keep hearing the same refrain: “There are more jobs than people to fill them.”
Governments, media, and corporations repeat it like a badge of progress — as if a surplus of job postings means opportunity is thriving. But beneath the surface lies a paradox that anyone who has spent months or years applying for work knows all too well: the system is broken.
Despite the flood of available positions, people aren’t being hired. Not because they lack skills, not because they aren’t trying, but because the hiring process itself has become a fortress — guarded by algorithms, automated filters, and rigid digital checkpoints that often prevent qualified humans from ever being seen by other humans.
The Death of the Human Eye in Hiring
It used to be that a hiring manager could look at a résumé, spot experience, character, and initiative, and make a judgment call. Today, that instinct is gone.
In its place: automated resume screening software, “AI-powered” applicant tracking systems, and keyword-dependent filters that sort applicants before anyone at the company ever reads a word of what they wrote.
These systems were designed to save time — to help recruiters sift through hundreds of applications efficiently. But in practice, they’ve created an invisible barrier between companies and candidates. They reject résumés that are too long, too short, too experienced, not experienced enough, or missing an exact phrasing that matches a job description written by someone who may not even understand the work itself.
And so, paradoxically, the most qualified applicants are often the first to be dismissed.
Overqualified Means “Uncomfortable”
For many professionals, being labeled “overqualified” is the kiss of death. It’s a polite way of saying, “We think you’ll want too much money,” or “We’re afraid you won’t stay.” But what it really says is: We don’t know how to handle experience.
There’s a quiet irony in that. Employers claim they want skilled, dependable, adaptable workers — yet when those very people apply, they’re told, directly or indirectly, that they’re too good. We’ve built a culture that values potential over proof, youth over wisdom, and algorithmic neatness over messy, human capability.
The result? A generation of workers — from tradespeople to executives — endlessly filling out forms, uploading documents, and waiting for callbacks that never come.
Three years of “We’ll be in touch.”
Three years of “We’ve gone in another direction.”
Three years of silence.
The Illusion of Abundance
If the system worked as advertised, those “now hiring” signs and online job boards would be emptying out by now. But they’re not. Job postings stay live for months. Many are recycled or duplicated across multiple platforms. Some aren’t even real — they’re placeholders meant to make companies look like they’re growing, or to gather résumés “just in case.”
Meanwhile, millions of skilled people are fighting to get noticed, sending application after application into a digital abyss. They don’t even get rejected — just ignored.
The official story is that “people don’t want to work.” The truth is that people want to work but can’t get through the door.
The Human Cost of Automation
Automation was supposed to make hiring smarter. Instead, it made it sterile.
By outsourcing judgment to algorithms, we’ve lost the nuance that defines good decision-making. Machines can’t read ambition between the lines. They can’t sense character or interpret life experience. They don’t understand what it means to have reinvented yourself, or to have carried decades of practical knowledge through changing industries.
What we’re left with is a false economy of “efficiency” — one that screens out precisely the kind of people who bring depth, reliability, and adaptability to work. In chasing perfect matches, companies overlook perfect fits.
The Way Forward
Fixing this doesn’t mean going back to paper résumés or abandoning technology. It means reclaiming the human element in hiring — restoring empathy, instinct, and common sense to the process.
Here’s what that might look like:
- Hire people, not profiles. The best employees often come from unexpected backgrounds. Real growth comes from character, not checkboxes.
- Simplify applications. Every extra step filters out capable candidates.
- Review manually, even partially. A short human audit of résumés can reveal gems that automation misses.
- Value experience, don’t fear it. Someone who’s “overqualified” might just be someone who can stabilize your team and elevate the standard.
Until we do that, we’ll keep hearing the same empty statistics: “Record job openings.” “Unprecedented hiring demand.” “Historic labor shortages.”
But behind those headlines are millions of people — skilled, willing, and waiting — locked out of opportunity by a system too busy optimizing to notice them.
The Real Shortage
We don’t have a labor shortage.
We have a recognition shortage — a failure to see people for who they are and what they can bring.
As long as we let automation dictate opportunity, we’ll keep mistaking noise for progress. The jobs are there. The people are there.
What’s missing is the connection between them.