No jobs but a lot of listings? (Portland: find a job, college)

[DogStar5988]

I've read a lot on here about how difficult it is to find a job in Portland, but on Craig's list there are a ton of listings. Do these jobs not really exist? Or are they just hard to get? I'm in the Hospitality field which is sometimes hard to find a decent job in but there are hundreds of listings on Craig's list...
Thanks

[pdxgirlonabike]

It's not that the jobs don't exist as far as I know. It's just there's a lot of competition for them. Portland is a pretty young town - especially those looking for work. There are lots of college students, artists/musicians, and recent college grads moving here from all over the country. Most of them end up looking for hospitality type jobs - like waitressing and bartending - flexible hours, tips, etc. Some of the jobs on craigslist are probably at less desirable places like chains or restaurants/bars in outer east Portland or the 'burbs, where cool hipster kids wouldn't want to work. Portland also tends to hire based on relationships, i.e. "my old roommate's boyfriend's previous bandmate hired him to work at a bar".