As employers add more jobs nationwide, some St. Cloud residents still struggle to find work

St. Cloud resident Greg Staffa is not new to the job market. After being laid off from his dream job during the COVID-19 pandemic, he has spent over a year submitting upwards of 1,000 applications, but to no avail.

"At 2020, I thought I was living the American dream," he said. "I went from homelessness to buying a house… and now I'm on the verge of losing it."

Staffa previously worked at Northwest Airlines before the company merged with Delta. He sustained an injury on the job at the same time as the merger, and despite being eligible for support from his union, Staffa said his case was lost in the administrative changes.

Shortly after the merger, he faced financial hardships and disability complications that pushed him into homelessness until he could begin rebuilding. Eventually, he found work as a traveling debt collector. However, the job became impossible during the pandemic, returning him to unemployment.

Staffa’s story may sound out of place amid continued positive job reports in the current labor market. According to USA Today, U.S. employers added 254,000 jobs last month, exceeding economists’ expectations, according to the Labor Department’s newest report released Oct. 4. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate decreased for the second month in a row to reach 4.1%.

However, hiring in Minnesota and St. Cloud specifically has slowed somewhat over the past three months, King Banaian, a St. Cloud State University economist, said.

How is the local job market?

Banian leads SCSU’s St. Cloud Area Quarterly Business Report, most recently released in September, alongside SCSU professor Mana Komaimolle.

According to the report, 29% of the area’s businesses reported decreasing activity from May to July and about 18% of respondents said they decreased the number of employees on their company’s payroll.

While the overall job market’s numbers appear healthy, Banaian said, some of these local slowdowns may mean that hiring is getting more competitive, and it may take longer for job seekers like Staffa to determine their next move compared to previous years.

“The fact that they're (businesses) pulling back on that would indicate that the market's getting a little bit tighter for workers; they've lost a little bit of the advantage they really had,” Banaian said.

Megan Imholte, business development manager with the Minnesota staffing firm Doherty, said she has noticed similar trends on her company’s site.

Since May, Doherty has seen a 44% decrease in St. Cloud-area job postings, though the rate is comparable to the national level of job postings, she said. Some of the decrease may also come from companies’ uncertainty regarding this year’s election.

“We are working through an election year as well, which tends to draw more of a cautious approach to hiring,” Imholte said. “It just creates some uncertainty for some companies, that cause a little bit of a slowdown.”

Banaian’s Quarterly Business Report also found the area has a 74% labor force participation rate, which can add to slightly higher unemployment rates in a competitive job market where many residents are newly entering the job search.

“(The) unemployment rate can go up because we get an influx of labor supply, new workers into the marketplace that we can’t absorb them all immediately into the labor force,” Banaian said.

These factors could make things harder for applicants like Staffa, who have been job searching for a long time and may also possess outdated skill sets.

“There are a number of reasons why someone's job skills might atrophy over that time, so it may not in fact be businesses shunning them because of their work history per se, but simply, you don't have the skill set we need anymore because you haven't been actively working in the last few years,” Banaian said.

The rise of "ghost jobs"

As Staffa has continued on his job search, he has also been concerned about the relatively new phenomenon of “ghost jobs” on job posting websites like Indeed. A ghost job is when employers may share fake job listings that they never have the intention of filling.

A May survey from the career site Resume Builder found that four out of 10 companies surveyed shared a fake job posting in the past year, with varied goals, including making it look like a company is growing or making workers feel like they are replaceable.

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“I don’t want to apply for jobs when four out of 10 of them are going to be fake, but I have to jump through that until something changes, and just as a business owner, I’d be embarrassed by that,” Staffa said.

Companies may also post fake job listings to work around algorithms on job sites, Banaian said, because it may be hard for them to predict how job seekers are entering their searches.

“An enterprising company might say, ‘Well, let me advertise I've got a job in Foley, when in fact I don't have a job in Foley, I have a job in St Cloud,’” he said. “So tweaking it to get someone to hit on their search and send them an application.”

Some employers may also simply pull back on a job posting if they experience significant changes within their business, Imholte said, which may mean applicants do not hear back on a position they applied for.

In Staffa’s case, he plans to continue applying to jobs while relying on a loan to avoid selling his house or moving elsewhere.

He said his biggest frustration is not knowing what to change about his approach or behaviors, and not having any spending habits like drinking or gambling he could point to as a source for his financial troubles.

“I don't know where to change my approach or to regroup,” he said, “other than just do the same thing and hope that this next one is the one.”

Those struggling with finding employment can access resources at Doherty's website , as well as other career platforms like Indeed's Career Guide . The State of Minnesota's CareerForce site also offers tools to assist with applications and the interviewing process.

Teagan King covers business and development for the St. Cloud Times. She can be reached at teking@gannett.com.

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This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: As employers add more jobs nationwide, some St. Cloud residents still struggle to find work