Top Five Worst Hiring Trends of 2009

Dec. 17, 2009 — -- It's been a horrific year for U.S. job applicants.

The average length of unemployment in November was 28.5 weeks. At last count, there were six job seekers for every opening. More than nine million Americans now work part-time because it's the only work they can find.

The grim statistics go on and on.

But stiff competition isn't the only hurdle job hunters have had to clear this year.

In this employers' market, companies have become pickier than a five-year-old at the holiday dinner table. Employment scams have spread faster than H1N1. And much like the budget surplus of the 1990s, hiring managers who respond to candidates in a timely manner have become an elusive, distant memory.

I asked some intrepid job seekers and employment advocates for their biggest peeves of the hiring process. Following are the top indignities they would like to see wane in the coming year.

If there's one thing I hear more job hunters harrumph about, it's the maddening online application tools so many companies use. No one's suggesting employers do away with online job applications altogether, just that they bring their systems up to twenty-first century computing standards.

"Not only do most of them have the job seeker input all of the information from their resume -- redundantly at times -- but half of them shut down, crash your computer or steer you into dead ends," said Dick Barnes of The Freeland Group, a management consulting firm in Bellevue, Wash., that frequently helps employers with the hiring process.

"The really top people look elsewhere," he added. "They become disgusted with a process that treats them as children."

Another common complaint:

"No acknowledgment that your resume or cover letter went through," said Robin, a marketing professional in Washington, D.C. who didn't want her last name used. "I know they are getting hundreds of submissions, but this is easily automated."