Remote work still leading to employee burnout: Monster

Monster CEO Scott Gutz joins Yahoo Finance’s Zack Guzman to discuss how the coronavirus is impacting the U.S. job market as some states begin to reopen.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Of course, the other main question that is out there is how quickly the employment picture will change in this country as we are currently experiencing the worst unemployment rate in decades. You've got to go all the way back to the Great Depression to see the numbers we're seeing, as well as the numbers that we're expected to get in the next report.

And for more on that, I want to bring on the CEO of job hiring and employment site, Monster. Scott Gutz joins us now for a look at the employment picture in the US. And Scott, I mean, I think right now, a lot of people would be looking for optimism on the idea of a quick snap back to reality here. But what are you seeing when you look at the job postings you guys have right now on Monster and the trends you're seeing play out?

SCOTT GUTZ: So a few different things. So good afternoon, Zack. We are seeing a change in demand in categories like software developers, network engineers, some people in the business operations category under the assumption that people will be returning to work and you need to think of operational flows when people are moving around offices, growth and financial management.

And then in some of the geek and resource categories, we're seeing growth in graphic designers and UI developers. And from an industry perspective, still, most of the jobs that we're seeing posted are coming from health care, delivery, food service. Some growth now in personal care, as we think about getting back into beauty shops, barber shops, and nails done, things like that. So we're following a bunch of different trends.

ZACK GUZMAN: All right, at least some hiring in some of those hardest hit areas that we've seen play out. The other major thing here, too, that I want to dig into, one that we've talked about on this show quite a few times, 2020 grads, those going through college and coming out the other side into one of the worst job markets you can imagine. What are you seeing when you look at college grads maybe downgrading expectations here, just desperate to get any sort of job out of college?

SCOTT GUTZ: Yeah, this is certainly a difficult time to be a college graduate. And in fact, Monster did some research with Wakefield Research. One of the interesting things that we found was that about 55% of the graduates are saying they're now applying to jobs that they know are not the right fit.

There is a sense of desperation. Many of these college students are now graduating with student loans with an expectation that they were going to be working. There is an expectation now that they will have to lower their salaries. More than likely, they'll consider themselves to be overqualified for some of the different positions.

The other thing that I would say is that they're probably looking at similar job types, but perhaps in different industries, as they look at those industries that are actually hiring more.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, I mean, when you think about number, there's 55% of grads saying that they're applying to a job that they knew was not the right fit out of desperation. I mean, that seems like a large number. Is that-- that's higher than what you've seen in the past, I would assume.

SCOTT GUTZ: Yeah, I would certainly think so. I mean, one of the things we pride ourselves is finding the right fit between employers and candidates and using a variety of tools, solutions, and techniques in order to do so. I would venture to guess that 55% is definitely on the high side, those people saying I am applying for a job, I know I'm not perfect, it's not perfect for me, but I need to get something. So yes, high side.

ZACK GUZMAN: The other thing, too, when we think about maybe people who have been in the workforce for a little bit longer, I mean, that's a trend that we saw during the Great Recession as well, in terms of people maybe taking a job that they felt they were overqualified for, just to make ends meet. And that has a lasting impact when you think about the recovery of all this, too.

But the other lasting impact that I think a lot of people are worried about is burnout. Especially as you shift to the work-from-home environment, you're essentially, by default, always now in the office. So when you look at that, what are you seeing in terms of employees that may still have a job in the way that that's impacting their mental health?

SCOTT GUTZ: Yeah, so I think what we're definitely seeing is burnout with respect to work from home. We've got roughly 51% of the people that we surveyed indicated that they are now officially burned out. 52% indicated that they are actually not considering taking vacation because they're afraid to sort of, like, take a vacation and maybe jeopardize their current job.

One of the other interesting things that we're seeing is a lot of people who are currently employed are not actively looking for other jobs. So where you're seeing a lot of the activity on our sites, it's related to those employees that have been furloughed or have been laid off, certainly those who have also lost their jobs. But in terms of the typical movement that we see in our site where there's a lot of people in existing jobs thinking about what out there may be better, not a lot of that happening right now. People are holding on tight.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, and there's-- I mean, we've been documenting kind of the desperation and also kind of the fears of losing a job. Even employees that have a job right now, clearly very worried about losing it.

But when you talk about, I guess, historical precedents on monster.com, when you're looking at the way that hiring kind of just fell off cliff, when we saw this downturn happen, I mean, what's the scale that you'll need to see? Because we hear people talking about a V-shaped recovery all the time. What would be kind of the playbook, or what needs to happen over the next couple weeks here to snap back in a way that would be getting back to what we were seeing before all of this hit?

SCOTT GUTZ: Yeah, so it's an excellent question. This is an unprecedented time. I'm hoping that it's a V-shaped recovery and not a W-shaped recovery. But I think what you're looking at now is some optimism that states are reopening, optimism around, you know, retail stores opening again, hospitality starting to think about coming back. Maybe people start to get some confidence around travel, so restaurants opening.

So I think if you start to look at the quick rebound from a jobs perspective, it may be the reopening of the economy that was fundamentally shut down that may drive activity. As mentioned before, we are still seeing traditional growth in categories like software development, network engineers, et cetera. But for me, it's about states reopening, it's about economies reopening, it's about those nonessential categories becoming essential again, and that driving sort of an uptick in activity going forward.

And as mentioned, the one quick example is in the services category, we are seeing sort of an increase in number of jobs in categories that are around personal grooming and health care.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, so more of that coming back online. But Scott Gutz giving us the update, Monster CEO. Appreciate you taking the time to give us that. We'll chat soon. Be safe.

SCOTT GUTZ: You, too, Zack. Thank you.