My main point is that the situation is not as bad as some claim. I'm not saying it's bad, it's definitely worse than 2018, but the industry was inflated during the Covid years and now we're all paying the price for that. However, designers always had the privilege of standing out through excellent portfolios. I'm not saying that that alone is enough to get a job but it's a huge part in design hiring. In my opinion, rightly so.