If the jobs report were a meme, it’d be a dumpster fire. Let me catch you up…

The latest report dropped Friday, showing the U.S. added just 73,000 jobs in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If you’ve opened LinkedIn lately, that tracks. With all the talk of ghost jobs and spam recruiters, it’s clear there are way more people applying than there are jobs actually available.

But here’s where it gets messy: the May and June job gains were way overstated — by 125,000 and 133,000, respectively. The real numbers? Just 19,000 in May and 14,000 in June. Not the 140,000+ initially reported. ‼️

In response, President Donald Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, accusing her of manipulating the numbers (though there’s zero evidence of that).

And okay, that’s quite the clerical error — but apparently, this happens all the time? ⬇️

Either way, statisticians are upset, and Former BLS Chief William Beach called the action “totally groundless.” 💅

McEntarfer, who was nominated for the position by Biden in 2023 and confirmed by the Senate in 2024, called the experience an “honor.”

Trump also placed blame on Fed Chair Jerome Powell for the poor report, citing his decision not to cut interest rates last week. Unemployment now sits at 4.2%. Read more here.

I’m oddly obsessed with looking for jobs. Like, not just for me, for anybody. With so many resources available online, it’s hard to know where to start.

I’m always sending potential jobs to friends or colleagues who are on the hunt, so when I discovered Brian’s Job Search, by Brian Batt, on LinkedIn, I was intrigued.

His website helps job seekers find open roles easily in hopes of making the hunt easier. I caught up with him to learn a little bit more about this project and how it’s helped others.

Your site feels like a blend of both professional skills and personal experience. What inspired you to create Brian’s Job Search, and what problem were you solving for yourself at the time?

I was laid off in February 2023 from a company where I had spent 14 years. I truly thought I would retire there. Because of that, I had never put much effort into LinkedIn or applied to jobs at other companies. When I suddenly needed to find a new job, I didn’t have a strong network to rely on. Cold applications were the only path forward.

I approached the job search like it was my full-time job. Very quickly, I realized applying to every job I came across was frustrating and ineffective. Most of the time, I was getting ghosted. I knew there had to be a better way to find real opportunities without wasting so much energy.

That was the beginning of briansjobsearch. I needed a way to find quality job postings directly from company websites — and early. Once I saw how helpful it was for me, I wanted to share it with others going through the same thing.

Was there a particular frustration or gap you noticed during your own job search that led to the idea?

Absolutely. One of the main frustrations was trying to figure out whether a job posting on LinkedIn was actually new. By the time I found something interesting, it was often two weeks old with hundreds of applicants.

Early on, I started tracking every job I applied to. I logged how old the posting was, when I received a first interview email, and when I got a rejection. A pattern emerged: I got interviews when I applied within the first 72 hours. For older postings, I was either quickly rejected or ghosted.

That insight led me to build a simple Notion tool that generated Google search links to surface fresh listings. It worked incredibly well — and that idea became briansjobsearch.com.

Many job boards feel like a black hole — overwhelming and often ineffective. What makes your site different, and why did you choose to focus on aggregating actual listings rather than becoming just another job site?

My site doesn’t aggregate postings or scrape the web. It’s designed with simplicity and speed in mind. No database I could build would surface postings faster than Google’s own indexing.

In early tests, I was finding jobs posted less than 30 minutes earlier — long before they appeared on LinkedIn or Indeed. Those platforms rely on integrations and scheduled updates that take time.

When I realized I was seeing jobs on company websites hours before they appeared elsewhere, I knew this tool could level the playing field. It gives real applicants a chance to apply before jobs are buried under hundreds of bulk AI-driven applications.

You describe the tool as something for “everyone.” Can you talk about your intention there — and how you thought about accessibility, usability, or scalability when building it?

Layoffs are extremely common today. I worked at a company that prided itself on being a human-centered organization. I never imagined a profitable company would let go of someone who had championed accessibility, improved retirement benefits, and advocated for parental leave.

That experience showed me no one is immune to layoffs. There will always be people across all industries looking for their next opportunity.

I originally built briansjobsearch for myself, but I wanted it to be useful for others too. I researched which applicant tracking systems are used across industries — not just for QA roles like mine, but for product managers, customer success teams, sales professionals, students, financial analysts, and more.

I continue to update and expand the tool so no job posting is overlooked. It’s meant to be simple, fast, and useful to anyone — no matter where they are in their career or what kind of role they’re searching for.

You’ve said “timing matters more than a perfect resume.” Can you unpack that a bit? What do most job seekers misunderstand about the actual search process?

Research shows applying within the first 4 days gives you an 8x better chance of landing an interview. Every day you wait drops your chances by ~28%.

Resume tweaks help, but only if your application gets seen. If you apply too late, you're competing to make the interview pile instead of being the one that starts it.

A well-crafted resume submitted fast beats a flawless one that shows up too late.

For readers who feel inspired to build their own tools — maybe not just for job searching, but to solve any professional problem — what advice would you give someone new to web development?

Great ideas usually begin with a problem that needs solving. Identifying the problem and a potential solution is often the hardest part.

When I worked at an e-learning software company called Articulate, I noticed many customers didn’t know how to get their courses online. I created a WordPress plugin called elearningfreak that let them publish their courses in just a few clicks.

I knew nothing about WordPress plugin development at the time. But I had a clear vision. That gave me the motivation to stick with it and learn everything I needed.

My advice: start with a real problem you care about. Focus on the outcome, stay persistent, and let the technical skills catch up as you go.

The site has an incredibly unselfish feel to it… you don't try to sell anything or collect emails. Where does that drive to help others come from?

There are plenty of great businesses that support job seekers. But when someone doesn't have a steady income, it’s easy to feel desperate. I've seen people spend thousands just trying to get an edge.

The drive to help comes from knowing how difficult and isolating a job search can be. When I was laid off, 38 of us lost our jobs at once. The next day, I set up a Slack workspace so we could stay in touch and support each other.

That experience taught me how meaningful it is to help others during a tough transition. Briansjobsearch is my way of giving people something useful during one of the most stressful times in their lives.

How has the response been so far from users? Any surprising feedback or success stories that have stayed with you?

One of the funniest pieces of feedback I received was that the tool is “unapologetically simple.” It’s not flashy. You just jump in like it’s an old-school video game. Type in a job title, click start, and go.

There are no pop-ups, upsells, or cookie banners — because there are no tracking cookies. It’s just a straightforward tool that does one thing really well. In a world full of lead magnets, that simplicity is refreshing.

I regularly hear from people on LinkedIn who say they used the tool to land their next job, which is always great. But honestly, the story I’m most proud of is my own. I used it to land the role I have now as QA Manager at Formant.

The most surprising part has been the level of traffic. I’ve built a lot of niche tools that got a few hundred visitors a month. Seeing this grow from 9,000 visitors in July 2024 to 48,000 in July 2025 is incredibly humbling.

Knowing this tool might be helping thousands of people get back on their feet fills my heart.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Turns out, working in pajamas isn’t just comfy — it’s scientifically proven to boost happiness and productivity. That’s according to scientists who studied the impacts of working from home for the past 4 years. Results show those who WFH are happier, healthier, and more productive. Read more here.

Regardless of the job you’re in, your relationship with your manager is one of the most direct ways to career growth. By owning the agenda, seeking feedback, and building a real relationship, you turn these routine chats into game-changing opportunities for advancement. Read more here.

I’m obsessed with the idea of packing up and leaving, and this list is only giving me another reason… Thanks to strong job growth, rising incomes, and lower living costs, these under-the-radar metros are becoming the new hotspots for career success. Read more here.

Congratulations to Atlas, our very first Employee of the Month, who shows us what work-life balance really means. A true icon of quiet quitting done right. 🐾

Looking for your next great hire? Know someone who’s a champion for the workforce? Or maybe you’re the one ready for a new opportunity?

If you're on the hunt for a new role and want to be featured reach out! Whether you're a marketer, engineer, strategist, or creative powerhouse, let’s get your name in front of the right people.

Great people deserve to be seen!

📩 Interested? Reply to this email with a few lines about your expertise and what you're looking for next!