Have you ever experienced an extended period of unemployment, or have you been able to hold down a steady job for the duration of your career?
When I’ve talked to long term unemployed people in the past, I tend to find their perception of the effort involved is not what it ought to be. Specifically, I hear about how they can’t find the right job, or that they’re only applying to a handful of positions.
What they seem to not understand is the numbers game involved. Applying thoughtfully to ~10 jobs a day is extremely doable, and is the kind of effort that a person may need to put in to quickly find another job. Hundreds upon hundreds of positions over a month will almost invariably result in an offer and if it doesn’t, you need coaching to figure out what you’re doing wrong.
It’s hard to find a job yes, but it’s a kind of hard that responds well to additional effort.
From my experience, there tends to be something holding the chronically unemployed back that is blindingly obvious to everyone else, but that the unemployed person either doesn’t want to see or can’t.
This is true in my experience as well. The only exception I can think of was a very smart guy (Phd) who had severe autism and really struggled to speak with other people. It's just hard for him to make that conversion even though he is well aware.
Besides shear numbers, they only look in obvious places. The worst case is people only applying to listings on big sites for remote jobs.