“Brutal,” “disheartening,” even “traumatic” — these are just some of the daily descriptions, on platforms such as LinkedIn, about searches for decent white-collar work.

It’s a problem compounded by the rising unemployment rate during President Donald Trump’s second, nonconsecutive term. U.S. unemployment in November 2025 reached a four-year high of 4.6%. That’s up from 4.4% in September, the last month the Labor Department reported for that metric.