Why finding a job is so awful right now

Those are some of the headwinds he said he would face when he sat down at his computer to apply for jobs. To do it right, he said, requires devoting at least four or five hours a day to the task.

Jolles has taken classes — boot camps, in the jocular parlance of tech — in data analytics and data visualization to add shine to his applications. And he’s tried artificial intelligence tools designed to match a person’s résumé to a job description.

“Complete waste of time and money,” Jolles said.

Now, after he’d “slacked off” for a few months on the search while earning his latest certifications, he’s preparing to jump back into the hunt in his new home.

170 applications

A few years ago, Jenitta Averett took a buyout from UPS after 14 years at the shipping giant’s headquarters in Atlanta, where she mostly worked in HR. Averett, 46, and her husband then moved to Hampton, Virginia, to be closer to family. She then landed a role as director of HR at a small company. In August, after three years, Averett lost her job.

“It was a bittersweet moment,” she said. Averett believed the position wasn’t a good fit for her, but she also knew from her experience in HR how tough a job search could be.

Cash’s primary career focus has been business intelligence. But, now, as he drives people near his home outside Portland, Oregon, he’s trying to network — sometimes in his car that he estimates he’s put 20,000 miles on in only a few months. Those conversations, and some passengers’ incredulity that someone with his education and experience could be hard up for work, have produced a few promising leads but no jobs.

Cash said that by a couple of months ago, he’d burned through his savings.

“It all ran out — like completely broke — starting over from scratch at 43 years old,” he said.

Since then, the single dad has been scraping by, trying to shield his daughter from the dark financial picture by providing back-to-school clothes and making the rent, which is nearly $3,000 a month.

Given how fruitless his job search has been, Cash plans to soon give it up.

“When I hit 2,200, I’m just going to stop applying to jobs,” he said. “I just don’t have it in me.”