The govt claims the unemployment rate is down to 3.6 percent.
I never believe any stats they put out.

It's deflating. I work in an industry presumed to be dying and I can get a job in many different places but because of industry downsizing I'm overqualified for 90 percent of it and would have to accept a fat cut in income. It starts to feel like there's no place in the workforce for you. I'm looking because I'm trying to leave my current job and just slowly giving less and less of a fuck about even being employed and calculating how long I can just live off my savings.

It sucks.

Been there.. feeling pretty good in my current job , so i guess i lucked out

Job interview:
"What's your greatest weakness?"
"Honesty."
"I don't think honesty is a weakness."
"I don't give a fuck what you think."

Old joke, but still accurate

"Where do you see yourself in five years?"

It does. That's why I'm self employed.

It's what you make it. The people you interview with sense it.

I've often considered job hunting far more difficult than having a job.

I know! After graduating with a degree in marketing, I couldn't find work anywhere until a positioned opened up in Montana. I moved everything there including my dogs! The job dried up after a year and so I was stuck there. It's a pretty fucking weird place, especially if you're not white. Really nice hot weather for two months and then dead winter for 10. Everybody drinks there. All. The. Time. If you're not drunk, then there's something wrong with you. I was happy to come back east for Graduate School.

Yes, it does. Just keep at it. Sometimes it takes literally hundreds of applications before you find something. In my profession, which is pretty specialized with few openings, I put in about 15 applications, got 2 interviews, and one offer, which I took. A relative, who is an engineer, literally sent out a hundred resumes before getting a job. Friends of friends can be good leads for jobs.