The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced some more (major) job losses for March. I don't want to discuss that here, so see the first link below for the numbers on that. As you can probably conclude, a lack of jobs means more applicants for what jobs do remain. Today's Wall Street Journal has a report on how companies are dealing with the glut of resumes that they are receiving.

One staffing firm received an application increase of over 50% over just eight months ago. Some of these numbers are just staggering and they are certainly going to affect your chances of getting your resume read, let alone scoring an interview. Companies are now starting to get creative to whittle the numbers down to a more manageable number.

Mr. Reckner [vice president of operations for Shop24 USA Inc.] recently posted an ad on Craigslist and Monster for a technical operations coordinator for the firm's newest office in Westerville, Ohio. Within 10 days, 375 applications arrived, and he invited 15 to participate in a five-question audio-screening process. Later, Mr. Reckner and three other executives at the firm listened to the candidates' recorded answers separately from their phones. Then they weighed in on the results and chose four candidates to interview in person.

To be completely honest, I am not sure I have any real helpful advice for a situation like this. I can tell you to be prepared. I can tell you to research the position, write the perfect cover letter, write the perfect resume and follow all the rules for the application process. But the fact of the matter is, the shear volume of applications being received is just too much for these companies to thoroughly examine. I have to think that in some aspect luck is going to play a major role in which resumes get looked at and who gets called in for the interview. The best thing I can tell you right now is to make sure your application package is flawless and then just apply the crap out of every job you see. If you do that, your bound to get at least a few bites. Now go get em!

We've got even more cheery news to brighten your weekend with The Links ...

ERE Summarizes: The Bureau of Labor Statistics report on March job losses. Down another 663,000 jobs for the month, unemployment is at 8.5% bringing the total of jobs lost since December of 2007 (the official start of the recession) to 5.3 million. It's tough to really see a bright side in these number, but John Zappe's post does a good job of crunching the number.

What Would Dad Say Profiles: LinkUp, a job service the blog provides. The free service posts jobs from company websites only and seems to do a pretty good job of weeding out those annoying and unwanted spam jobs that seem to make their way onto job boards. Check it out!

The Monster Blog Suggests: Helping out the unemployed. Hey, maybe you've already got a great gig lined up and just like reading this blog for the witty repartee. If so, monster has some suggestions on how you can help out those less fortunate than you.

The Wall Street Journal Reports: On at least one benefit of the excess of applicants for jobs. Corporations are able to choose from a larger field than ever before and make better decisions on running their company. Specifically health care, government and utilities are looking to add jobs. This just reinforces the idea that you have increased competition and need to get your act together.

"Think positive! You Can Do It!" photo courtesy viZZZual.com via Flickr Creative Commons.