With the tight job market right now, some employers are changing how they do background checks. In addition to the initial background check, they're adding what's called “continuous monitoring.”

These are regular checks of court records that happen after you've been hired.

“Employees, I think, are increasing their expectations for safety and security across the board. And, as a result of that, I think you see a lot of organizations that are trying to make sure that they're putting solutions in place to help support that,” said Tom Miller, CEO at ClearForce.

Tom Miller with ClearForce works with employers who say they're adding continuous monitoring as they work to do more second-chance hiring, That means hiring people with a criminal record.

This impacts an estimated 70 million Americans.

Miller says how long continuous monitoring lasts varies by company and industry.

“Most importantly, they want to be able to provide environments where they can pick up on indications that would be helpful to them to get assistance to individuals that need assistance, to be able to really save and retain employees,” said Miller.

However, some attorneys are questioning the need for additional monitoring.

Ariel Nelson with the National Consumer Law Center says she's concerned about the errors that can come up in background checks, like mismatched or incomplete records.

“Say you have hired someone that, you know, that they have a criminal record and you are an employer who is interested in second chances, and has looked at the data and thought this person could be a good employee then,” said Nelson.

“I don't know that someone whose performance has been good getting another using a continuous monitoring check, do you really want to fire someone if their performance has been exactly what you need?” Nelson said.

Research shows Black Americans are arrested more often and may face disparities in the criminal justice system.

“When we're relying on criminal records, we know who is going to impact the most, and I think it's really important that we don't separate the issues between these background checks and the problems with our criminal justice system when we look at these issues,” Nelson said.

Miller says companies should be focusing on eliminating bias and discrimination in any continuous monitoring program they put into place.

Job posting site Monster released its hiring outlook for 2022 on Friday.

93% of employers plan to look for new workers this year.

That’s up from 82% in 2020.

Half of those hires will replace or backfill staff.

More than 40% of hires will be for new positions, exceeding expectations from 2021.

However, employers are having a tough time hiring candidates.

Many companies are now competing against each other to entice workers.

While many employers have open positions, they’re having a difficult time finding candidates with the right skills.

9 out of 10 employers told Monster they are struggling to fill positions due to a skills gap.

They report that the skills gap has increased from one year ago.

It is mostly large companies looking to hire.

Small businesses are expected to have hiring freezes during 2022.

Companies are starting to lose hope when it comes to hiring.

For the third year in a row, confidence regarding hiring is on a downward trend, Monster reports.

It’s not just companies feeling negative about the hiring process.

Nearly one-quarter of candidates told Monster they are skeptical of the promises companies make about job expectations, benefits, perks, and culture.

Most of those skeptics are Millennials.

The Employment Cost Index released Friday shows hiring is slowing down.

It rose 1% in the last quarter of 2022, falling short of economists' expectations.

The number was driven by a high number of job openings and resignations hitting new records.

For the first time in roughly four months, weekly jobless claims in the U.S. have risen. The Department of Labor’s latest reports shows 1.4 million people filed new jobless claims, compared to 1.3 million people the week prior.

“People are overwhelmed by the news. They are overwhelmed when they see that a million extra people just filed for unemployment,” said Sarah Johnston, a job search strategist.

Johnston runs the company Briefcase Coach and specializes in helping people find work in this job market.

“The good news is my clients and I know from looking at LinkedIn’s update, people are getting jobs,” said Johnston.

Finding a job right now, with such high unemployment, is not easy. It is competitive but--as Johnston teaches in a course with LinkedIn-- if you search in the “hidden job market,” you’ll find better success.

“The hidden job market is all the jobs that are unadvertised online,” said Johnston.

These jobs may be unadvertised because an employer may be planning a promotion or expanding but hasn’t announced that yet. If you can get to know the hiring manager before new jobs post, you have a better chance of topping their list of candidates.

“Tip number one is to understand what your options are. You really need to know your target companies, who hires people like you for work that you want to do,” said Johnston.

She recommends creating a “target list” of the companies you want to work for and find out who are the hiring managers.

Then, move on to tip number two, which is seeing who in your existing network may know or have connections to those managers or someone in that list of companies.

“The final tip would be to not be afraid of being proactive in your job search and making contact or reaching out or getting an introduction to a hiring manager at your dream company or companies on your target list,” said Johnston. “It only takes one conversation to change the entire trajectory of your job search.”

Johnston’s in-depth course on navigating the hidden job market is available on LinkedIn. It is one of many courses being offered by job search companies to help millions of Americans find work again.

In order to reach the next generation of job seekers, Madeline Mann meets them where they are, and that is on TikTok and YouTube.

Mann runs career advice channels on those platforms as the Selfmade Millennial. But just as the way to reach job seekers is changing, so is the job search

“To say that the job landscape has changed is a complete understatement,” she said.

Rising college seniors are no strangers to change. The pandemic had forced schools to go remote and many traditional internship opportunities were not available. Though the latter half of their college experience was plagued with obstacles, the silver lining is that so many companies are hiring

Brandi Britton, district president at human resources consulting firm Robert Half, says the job market seniors will be graduating into looks strong.

"If you are a recent college graduate or you're graduating soon, the job market is very good for you," she said.

Britton says the demand for employees is making employers work to attract applications by doing things like shortening their hiring process and offering higher wages.

"The demand is definitely high. There's lots of jobs for a variety of reasons. Companies reduce headcount last year; they're growing again. So, jobs are being created," said Britton.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average wage for non-managers is $25.83, which is up almost 8% from the start of the pandemic. However, the fastest-growing wages can be found in industries like hospitality and retail, where wages are up around 10%, so are jobs for blue-collar workers.

With all these openings and many in the corporate world being remote, it may be hard for someone new to the working world to get a sense of the culture or fit of a job. Britton suggests looking into contract work where you can gain experience, but do not have to commit long term.

So, what things can college seniors be doing right now to set themselves up for success? Mann says the skills students gained in remote school and being plugged into this tech-focused world can add weight to your resume.

"It could be that you've built your website or have built a social media following and you're using certain tactics of marketing, you can use that as work samples. All of these things are really powerful and there is so much you can do remotely these days," she said.

No matter what the industry may be, the future for the Class of 2022 looks brighter than the tough years they endured to get there.