Some people think that because career placement tests have been in use for a relatively long period of time, their day has come and gone and instead interview panels should be looking at more rigorous and thorough means of finding out job candidates’ qualities, rather than relying on assessment tests.

But those who wish to see the end of the career placement tests are ignoring a very important development in the employment field, namely the recession.  The recession means that unemployment is at its highest point than for decades and experts claim that the real figures of unemployed people are far higher than is declared, because so many people are now on sickness or invalidity benefit and thus are missed off the unemployment radar.

With an increase in unemployment, many employers are now finding that they are actually inundated with candidates for positions.  Almost 260 people recently applied to work as a refuse collector, which is not seen as a very enticing job: but these are tough times and people have to make ends meet.

Employers can only use the best possible methods to ascertain who is the best candidate for a position and so they will continue to use career placement tests, since they can sort out people who are just great at verbally selling themselves and those who can actually do the job!  When there are far too many candidates for a position, having career placements tests sometimes helps rid people who aren’t that interested: they are told that a test will be part of the interview, so they withdraw from the interview process.

Thus the demise of career placement tests does not look imminent and it is likely that those of us who are applying for jobs will have to undertake the dreaded tests for some time to come.