Mar 6, 2026
From a well-paying tech job to struggling to make ends meet — it’s a scenario that seems unlikely, the stuff of sitcoms. But it is reality for one New Hampshire woman, who has been out of work for two years, with debt hanging over her head and a seemingly never-ending job search taking its toll.
Clair Todd told Business Insider that she was laid off from Oracle in November of 2023 (1). The 40-year-old had worked for the Texas-based data management multinational since 2020 as a site reliability engineer, until her entire team was laid off.
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Todd said that since she was laid off right before the holiday season, she delayed starting her job hunt, hearing that it was hard to land a tech job at that time of year, and because she had severance pay.
She began looking for a new gig in February 2024. She’s still unemployed, nearly two years later.
Tougher than expected
After running through her severance and unemployment benefits, Todd had to tap her emergency fund. She told Business Insider she has now gone through more than $50,000 in savings.
She also has a mortgage, and $45,000 in student debt, from when she went back to school in her early 30s to get a bachelor’s degree in information technology.
To make ends meet, Todd said that she is using savings, and selling stocks as necessary. She also refurbishes and resells antiques she buys on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, such as old instruments, electronics and collectibles, which nets her between $500 and $1,000 a month. A “huge drop,” she said from what she took home from Oracle each month, about $5,500.
Todd says that she believes her job search has been challenging because she’s looking for mid-level roles, and she is seeing more roles posted that are either entry- or senior-level positions. She is also targeting remote roles, akin to what she had with Oracle.
The stress of searching for work for such a long time has impacted Todd, with the constant rejections taking a toll on her mentally, “because it feels like you're not good enough when you keep getting rejected,” she said.
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And that’s added to the stress of not having enough money coming in to cover her expenses. She said that this two-year period of unemployment has been “extremely discouraging” and has left her feeling less “passionate” as she once was about working in tech.
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Uncertain job market
Todd’s experience is a stark reminder of the risk of prolonged unemployment in the job market today. Someone in a well-paying field like tech might assume that, even if they were laid off, they would be able to find another role no problem, and that their savings and severance would float them until they did.
The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data shows that in February, there were 1.9 million long-term unemployed people (defined as 27 weeks or more), up from 1.5 million last year. This group accounted for 25.3% of all unemployed people. The overall unemployment rate, which changed little from January, BLS noted, is currently 4.4%, totaling 7.6 million people (2).
The numbers “changed little” from November, BLS noted. At that time, CNN reported that unemployment had hit a four-year high (3), and the U.S. was on track to hit its weakest year of job creation since 2020, when the pandemic roiled the labor market.
Indeed notes, in its 2026 Jobs & Hiring Trends Report (4), that there has been a “recent weakening of the labor market and rising ‘low-hire’ environment,” as well as a “mismatch in skills and experience between the jobs that are available and the workers that are available to fill them.”
Preparing for possible unemployment
With the prospects for the labor market uncertain, workers may want to consider reassessing their backup plans.
An obvious place to begin is with your emergency fund.
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Experts generally advise building an emergency fund that could sustain you for three to six months. If you have been putting your emergency fund on the back burner, consider prioritizing it for 2026. Setting up an automatic withdrawal every month that funnels into a high-yield savings account is an easy way to ensure you are maximizing your savings.
But there is also a question of whether the standard three to six months is adequate. If you are in an industry that has seen an uptick in layoffs, consider whether your emergency fund would sustain you for an extended period, as in Todd’s situation.
If you are really concerned about layoffs, or you are facing extended unemployment, also consider whether your skills could be pivoted to another role, or if you could use your skills to start a side hustle.
Todd told Business Insider that she is in the process of launching her own small business building websites.
A venture like this could help tide you over in the event of an extended unemployment period. Or, if you are employed, but worry about layoffs, you could consider a side gig like this to help bolster your emergency fund — and shore up your backup plan.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
Business Insider (1); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2); CNN (3); Indeed Hiring Lab (4)
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Rebecca Payne has more than a decade of experience editing and producing both local and national daily newspapers. She's worked on the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, Metro, Canada's National Observer, the Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press.
