Cheesy

This is an advertisement for an outfit called Job Leads. They've done a big ad purchase on LinkedIn, and their main pitch is access to "the hidden job market," which is supposedly made up of roles that employers are looking to fill, but for some reason are not advertising.

Now, some jobs are not advertised because they aren't actually being made open to the public at large. While some outfits will do what they call "compliance posting" for various reasons, many of these roles already have someone lined up for them, which is why they aren't being advertised broadly.

Job Leads, however, is implying that the majority of jobs out there aren't advertised, but are nevertheless open to members of the public who apply and "headhunters" know about them, and can connect you. Provided, of course, that one pays the Job Leads membership fees.

But the 80% figure is one of those numbers that seems to appeal to people's subjective experience of the modern job market, even though there's no real evidence for it. The ads, of course, give no source for the number. The best that I've been able to find is that it dates back to the 1990s, when the majority of job postings were in print, and companies needed to pay to get them out there. That was a long time ago.

There is no magic path through the maze of job seeking that opens up to those willing to pay for connections. The hidden job market, such as it is, has always been about one's network, the degree to which those people who have worked with one before are willing to advocate on one's behalf. Usually, free of charge.