It's far worse here in Australia. Almost every job ad is written by a slimey salesman in a recruitment company, so: a) The ads are deliberately vague so you can't go direct to the client b) A single job / employer will be listed in several vaguely-worded ads from competing rent-seeking-middlemen c) For the invaluable work of obfuscating the description and wasting everybody's time, these people will take 10-20% of your gross wage.