I've been fired or laid off two times since I left the military a little over thirty years ago. Each time I tried to find something in my specialty. I was extreemely particular about what I would accept. However, that luxury had a timetable.
In both cases after that timetable was exhausted, I expanded the horizon in search. The first time I wound up with something, at least, within my "field" even if not exactly what I would have preferred. That one took about six weeks.
The second time occured when I was over fifty years old. That had me worried. I passed a second milestone in time and started looking in other states. If you can no longer make it where you are, maybe it's time to move to where the jobs are. Still looking was more of a full time job than was my previous job effort. Luckily, I found something is a completely separate field in my home. This time the effort took slightly more than three months. However, both my wife and I were fully prepared to move on if that is what it took, even though we have both lived here most of our lives.
I've talked to people in my situation on several occasions. They tell me that often (not always) you should be making more in your new locale than the one you left, and this improvement should take place within about two years.
I tend to lose sympathy for people that tell me they have been looking for work for "X" number of years and there just isn't anything out there. In the worst of recessions there is something out there. It's a law of large numbers and expanding horizons. Otherwise, it's just whining most of the time.
The worst thing congress could have done was to extend jobless benefits. They aren't benefits. They are millstones to hang around one's neck.
"Pride goeth before the fall" isn't just a clever saying. Some people are just too proud to take jobs they consider below them.