The Brutal Truth: It's Not Your Fault You're Jobless

Morning. Coffee. You open your inbox — crickets.

Check your messages — nothing. Head to a job board — application rejected. Another one.

Then you open LinkedIn. And there — everyone's killing it. Someone launched a course. Someone closed a funding round. Someone moved to Dubai. Victory posts, smiles, "grateful for this opportunity."

Meanwhile, you've got rejection number forty-seven this month. Or just silence. Which, honestly, might be worse.

And you start thinking: maybe something's wrong with me? Maybe I've fallen behind? Maybe the market just isn't for people like me anymore?

Let's break this down. Not based on feelings — based on numbers.

What's happening in the market

Here are industry reports from 2023–2025 showing an overall trend of 60-80% fewer copywriting positions.

Juniors, mid-level, seniors — across the board, massive drops. Editors — same story.

And salaries? In 2023, juniors were making $2,000-2,500. In 2025 — $2,000-2,500. Factor in inflation, and that's not growth. That's stagnation.

What does this mean? Companies don't need to compete for talent anymore. There's no shortage of specialists. Every opening has a line out the door.

Where you used to see several job posts a day in industry communities and job boards — now you're lucky if something decent pops up once a week.

This isn't just your perception. This is objective reality: the market has contracted.

Why this happened

First thought: AI replaced everyone. But it's not that simple.

The economy is shrinking. Interest rates are high — it's more profitable to save than spend. Taxes are up. Prices are up. People are buying less.

When people buy less — businesses lose revenue. Same expenses, less money coming in. The cushion companies were sitting on is melting away.

And when a business owner watches their margins shrink month after month — they start cutting. Not because they're cruel. Because it hurts.

AI became the catalyst. Gave them an excuse to say: "Okay, we can get by without this position now." But the cause isn't neural networks. The cause is the economy.

You got cut not because you're a bad specialist. But because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time in a shrinking market.

It's not you

And here's the most important thing to understand.

Right now, everyone's struggling.

It's not just you who's struggling. It's not that you specifically are a bad specialist who can't find work.

It's just the times we're in. The economy has problems. Businesses have problems. Everyone's trying to keep their head above water.

You haven't fallen behind. You haven't gotten worse. You're not "past your prime." The market just contracted, and you got caught in the squeeze.

And you know what? It could've been way worse. You're still here. You're still looking. You haven't given up.

Permission to exhale

But before you rush off to do something — stop.

You just survived a brutal year. That's not a metaphor. Stress accumulates, your body remembers. If you spent the whole year in "survival mode" — you can't just flip a switch to "winning mode."

Permission granted: do nothing for a week. Not "productive rest." Just nothing.

Permission granted: feel zero guilt about binge-watching shows.

Permission granted: stop comparing yourself to people who launched a course, wrote a viral post, and ran a marathon on January first.

A burned-out person can't build anything. First — recover. Then — act.

Give yourself this pause. It's not weakness. It's necessity.