'60 people applying for a US$12 an hour retail job': Reddit's most sobering job market reality check yet

A post on Reddit’s r/jobs has landed differently from the usual job market complaints. It’s not because their situation is more dramatic, but because it is so specific, so grounded, and so hard to argue with.

The original poster has apparently worked retail since 2019. Six to seven years of experience. They were let go from an overnight Walmart shift after a hospitalisation left them unable to contact the store for several weeks. This was a situation they acknowledge, without bitterness, made sense from the employer’s perspective. The job they found since barely gave them one or two shifts a month.

They have applied to Dollar Tree, Target, Sam’s Club, Walmart, PetSmart, Petco, Walgreens, Home Depot, CVS, Family Dollar, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, and gas stations. Ghosted or rejected by all of them.

Then they called one store and asked to speak to the manager for an update. The manager said: “I have to go through 60 applications for your position.”

Sixty people applying for a US$12 to US$15 an hour retail role. Imagine that.

“There’s no way I’m gonna be selected,” the original poster lamented. “If this is how it is for any other job, no wonder I’m not getting anything back.”

What Reddit said

The thread confirmed the numbers and added more.

“A lot more people are sticking in retail and fast food for longer than before, and that mixed with smaller crew sizes makes it harder to get a job now. Plus the volume of applications has increased. I work part-time at a grocery store and my location in a smaller market averages like 150 applications per week. Places like Walmart and Costco can average 500 depending on location,” one user wrote.

Another offered a counterintuitive observation about why experience sometimes works against you in retail: “Retail jobs were once relegated to high school students and those right out of high school. Now college graduates are taking them on because the job market is so tough. Many managers prefer younger individuals because with seven years of experience you may be a threat to their own position.”

One commenter shared their own numbers as a reference point: “It took me over 300 job applications to get my current job that pays US$17. It’s brutal, but expand your job search to jobs you think you may not have thought of or even jobs you’re under- or overqualified for. I didn’t think I’d be a florist, but here I am.”

Others pointed to the reality without softening it: “It’s not you, it’s just the amount of applications they are receiving for each job posting. It’s a numbers game, and in some cases who you know. Not sure how you differentiate yourself if they are looking at 60 applicants or more.”

One commenter pushed toward a harder truth: “Retail jobs involve very low skills, so everybody can apply for them. It’s time to realise you need to up your game and get skills that allow you to apply for a job that not everybody can apply to.”

One offered practical advice: “That resume needs to be incredible and clean. Any manufacturing plants nearby?”

The original poster’s situation strips the job market problem down to its most basic form. This isn’t about AI replacing white-collar work, or credential inflation in knowledge industries, or the mismatch between a communications degree and entry-level corporate hiring. This is about sixty people competing for one US$12 an hour retail shift.

The pool has deepened while the number of positions has stayed flat or shrunk. None of it is easy. But the numbers are the numbers, and knowing them at least explains why the silence isn’t personal.

Read related: ‘Job market is a JOKE’: Redditor expresses frustration with the broken hiring cycle