Sibile Marcellus April 15, 2021, 1:38 PM While new jobless claims fell to a pandemic-era low of 576,000 for the week ended April 10, roughly 8 million jobs that were lost since the pandemic began have still not been recovered. In spite of that, many hiring experts still view this as an opportune time for job seekers to negotiate their salaries. “You have more leverage than you think,” says Michael Neece, CEO of InterviewMastery.com, a company that provides video-based apps to hiring teams, job seekers, and recruiters. “You have a lot of leverage because it’s so time consuming for the employer [to go through the interview process.] It’s so hard for them to find someone to hire. So all of a sudden the leverage shifts to the job seeker, when they really want you.”