Why the job market sucks

I came across an advertisement today looking for Linux Engineers with a speciality in virtualisation, PHP/Perl/Bash coding, and VoIP. Interested, I looked up the mob that was advertising it.

It turns out there is a relatively swish looking recruitment firm called Super Coders. Of course, a little digging says its also called Flat Rate Recruitment - but that doesn’t sound anywhere near as appealing :)

So I give them a call thinking that they may actually be a decent company - and of course have to leave a name and number for someone to call me back.

They did call back, but strangely enough, the position advertised had already closed (or did it even exist in the first place?) and the only thing the person who called me back was interested in is getting a resume. He did mention another possible position, but wasn’t willing to discuss it with me - Just send in a resume!.

I believe this is what is wrong with the job sector at the moment. I remember my first IT position. I registered with a job agency and it was their purpose to get me a job! Now, it seems everyone harvests resumes to justify their existence and plop the first 20 that come out of their basic search to companies that actually advertise jobs.

Why the industry has changed so much is beyond me. Has the care by recruitment agencies disappeared that much that beyond collecting their fees, they don’t care about the real suitability of the person for a job?

Anyone else come across things like this?