Most Workers Have Been Turned Down For A Job They’re Qualified For So This Type Of Person Could Have It Instead, Finds Survey
Javier Bermudez Zayas | Shutterstock Qualified workers are losing out on jobs, and it doesn't seem fair. When it comes to getting employed and, in some cases, promoted, it turns out who you know really is most important, especially in our current market.
It feels like finding a job is harder than ever right now. There are plenty of qualified candidates out there, but many of them are struggling to find a company that’s willing to take a chance on them. A lot of people assume this is just due to the current state of the job market, but a survey revealed there could be something else involved.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that 7.5 million people are currently unemployed in the U.S. Additionally, in 2025, Fast Company said that it took the average job seeker six months to find a job. Why are so many people struggling to find their next role? Between networking and ghost jobs, the game has never really seemed fair, but now it sounds like conditions are worse than ever because of one specific group of people.
Apparently, a lot of people have been passed over for a job because of nepotism.
Nepo babies are no longer just an interesting aspect of the entertainment industry. In a new survey of 1,000 U.S. workers from Resume.io, 45% said they had lost out on a job opportunity, whether it was brand new or a promotion, because someone who had family ties to the higher-ups got it instead. Another 73% of workers said that knowing the right people was key to getting hired.
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One could argue that has technically been true for a while now as increasing numbers of career experts emphasize the importance of networking. No one really thought the phenomenon of nepo babies was so prominent in the workplace, though. But, while no one was paying attention, 401 of the 1,000 workers surveyed admitted that they had been hired at the same company as a family member at some point.
42.1% of workers said that nepotism is “quite usual” for jobs in the U.S. — an interesting number, since it’s roughly the same as the number of people who said they had benefited from nepotism themselves. However, 54% also thought that it was making the workforce worse.
Experts have confirmed that nepotism in the workforce is far from just a suspicion some people have.
Writing for Harvard Magazine, Max J. Krupnick stated, “Facing a deluge of resumes, cover letters, and interviews, firms don’t always select the most qualified candidate. Often, they instead choose an employee’s child.” Matthew Staiger, a scientist at Opportunity Insights, said that this is often the difference between an entry-level employee working at a fast food restaurant or at a “job that often pays much better.”
Staiger explained that this is really detrimental to the concept of the American dream. “Equality of opportunity is this key American ideal,” he said. “And the fact that some people are getting access to jobs via the connections of their parents and some aren’t contradicts this ideal.”
Jonathan H. Westover, PhD, the founder and CEO of Human Capital Innovations, confirmed that this is a bad thing for employee morale. “When employees believe advancement depends on relationships rather than merit, they experience diminished self-efficacy (questioning whether effort leads to outcomes), increased learned helplessness (disengagement from a seemingly rigged system), and identity threat (as their professional self-concept is undermined),” he noted.
Nepotism feels wildly unfair.
Anyone should be able to get a job based on their qualifications, period. There’s a good chance that in many cases, when a candidate who submitted an application is passed over in favor of a relative, they were actually more qualified to begin with. How much is this costing and disrupting companies by forcing them to spend more time training new hires?
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It’s easy to see how nepo babies could be common in a place like Hollywood, where famous parents can connect their kids to agents, managers, producers, and other executives. Realizing how widespread the issue is in the lives of average Joes is disheartening. After searching for months and months, many people feel like their effort is pointless.
However, if everyone else is doing it, it might be time to cash in on that "who you know card." Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire, and that means network like you've never networked before and start calling in on family members, too.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
