[supafamous]

Tech is tough if you're entry level or intermediate but it's mostly manageable above that - definitely not the heyday of before and I've seen people eventually have to give up their hunt and go into other fields. I know a guy who I'd almost consider a peer who applied for over 200 jobs and reached final round a half dozen times before he landed a job that I considered a step back for him.

OTOH, I've helped 5 of my clients land new jobs in Q1 and helped several others land work through pro bono mentorship. I expect to have a couple more clients will land work this quarter as well. None of these people took a step back in salary either. Edit: I have also met a number of folks who leave me pretty unimpressed who end up with solid to great jobs that have me going, "YOU?! YOOOOOUUUUU?!" so there's obviously still work for below average talent (I consider myself an excellent talent evaluator.)

IMO, the biggest problem is fit and not the number of jobs (this is still a problem though) - hiring managers are looking for very specific skills and experience today. In the past we hired on potential and we liked generalists because we were hiring so much we could take risks on who we hired and we needed to be flexible about what the business needed. Now hiring managers know they only have 1 open head all year so they better make it count so they won't hire someone unless they are exactly the person they need so finding fit is really hard.