Why it happens and how to avoid it
After Jonathan Clanton was laid off from his talent acquisition job earlier this year, he immediately began looking for a new role. Clanton, 39, soon found himself scrolling through job postings for hours each day.
“It felt like a mix of social media addiction and anxiety about needing to find a job,” he told CNBC Make It.
There’s now a word for this behavior: “doomscrolling,” a combination of doomscrolling and job hunting. Due to the stress of job hunting, some job seekers find themselves constantly refreshing job sites and frantically applying for new roles.
Ilya Bagrak, a product manager in Los Gatos, California, posted about the term on March 25. Topic post: “I was laid off two weeks ago,” Bagrak wrote. “My 8-year-old daughter saw me spending too much time on the LinkedIn app and called it a ‘disaster.'”
Bagrak, 45, told CNBC Make It that losing his job created “a lot of uncertainty.” As the breadwinner for his family, which includes his wife and two young children, Bagrak says his immediate concerns are healthcare and mortgage payment.
This stress caused him to spend more and more time searching and applying for jobs online.
Career and leadership coach Phoebe Gavin says scrolling through job postings can temporarily trigger an emotional itch, but in her experience, it leaves job seekers feeling “even more powerless, even more hopeless about when and how their job search will end.”
What causes ‘doomsday’?
“The job market is tougher than ever,” he says, “and people are feeling a lot of pressure.”
Goldstein says many candidates are finding that traditional job search tactics don’t work: “Traditionally, we were always taught that if you need to find a job, you should go to job sites.” However, every new job posting receives a flood of applications “immediately”.
The average job opening in mid-2025 received 242 applications; This figure is three times the 2017 average. greenhouse data According to Business Insider’s report. Long-term unemployment is also on the rise: 1 in 4 unemployed people have been looking for work for more than six months, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Given the level of competition for every new job, most job seekers feel they need to apply for as many positions as possible and as quickly as possible to have a chance at an interview, Goldstein says. According to a March survey by job site Monster, 48% of job seekers say they look for work frequently or regularly. prioritize speed and volume over selectivity in job hunting, and 25% are now applying for any job that appears remotely obtainable.
Clanton says he felt pressure to be among the first to apply for new jobs so his resume didn’t get “lost in the shuffle,” which pushed him to spend more time on job sites. “It’s impossible to keep up,” he says.
Bagrak thinks the same way. “The job market is so tight right now that time is of the essence,” he says. For new roles, “you’re always encouraged to check your searches, check your feeds.”
In Gavin’s experience, “doomsaying” and other similar behaviors stem from a desire for stability: “Because so many aspects of the job search are out of our control, we look for things that can help us feel like we have some control – even if it’s not particularly effective.”
‘It will make you doubt yourself’
“Doomsday work” may make job seekers feel like they’re being productive, but it’s not a practical way to conduct a job search, Goldstein says.
“It’s going to make you feel anxious. It’s going to make you doubt yourself: ‘Am I a bad candidate? What don’t people like about me?'” Goldstein says.
According to him, behavior such as “doomsaying” wastes candidates’ time and energy “building relationships, developing your network, [and] “You think about your personal brand and how you can stand out better,” he says.
According to Goldstein, this can also have a negative impact on your personal life; This is something Clanton has experienced firsthand. She says she realized her habit of scrolling through job postings was keeping her from being with her three children.
“There were times when I would sit there and talk to them and we were having fun, and suddenly my dad turned on his phone and walked out,” he recalls.
After that, Clanton says, he decided to change his approach to job hunting “before it really affected the rest of my life or the people around me.”
How to avoid ‘doomsday’?
Bagrak says he had to “find a more productive way” to deal with the stress of his job search. Here are three steps job seekers can take to deal with the “disaster”:
1. Refine your search
Goldstein’s No. 1 tip for job seekers is to keep your search focused. “Before you apply to any job board, you have to have a very clear understanding of what you want to do, what the best role is for you,” says Goldstein.
Given how competitive the job market is, applying for roles you’re not suited to is a waste of time, he says: “You can’t make yourself a chameleon and be applicable to every job.”
By default one Gavin suggests slowing down and focusing on one job application at a time, following the “spray and pray” strategy.
Clanton came to a similar conclusion: Instead of rushing to apply for every new position, he says he realized it was more effective to “take the time to reshape my resume and apply for jobs that actually fit my background.”
To avoid the temptation to mass apply, Goldstein recommends configuring your job site filters to see only new roles that match your experience.
2. Limit the time you spend applying
Clanton says the time constraint helped him develop a healthier approach to his job search and reduce “doom-mongering.” Instead of browsing job sites at all hours, he devotes some time each day to three specific tasks:
- apply for jobs
- Networking and reaching potential connections
- Posting on platforms like LinkedIn to increase visibility
Outside of these specific time periods, he tries to relieve his stress by going for a walk, meeting his friends or spending time with his family.
Setting time limits can help prevent the job search from “getting busy with all the other aspects of your life,” says Gavin. She also recommends setting limits on the times and places where you “definitely don’t check” your work alerts: when you’re in bed or when you’re out to dinner, for example.
3. Trust your network
According to Gavin, job seekers should prioritize making and strengthening connections rather than spending all their time on applications. He says that in his experience, “candidates who come in from the side door through relationships actually complete job searches much faster than people who only apply to job sites.”
Cold outreaches are good as one component of a broader strategy, but Goldstein also recommends “proactively reaching out to people in your warm network.” “After all, having some form of guidance will always exponentially increase your chances of getting feedback and landing an opportunity,” he says.
Investing time in your interpersonal relationships will always be more beneficial than “endlessly scrolling,” he says.
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