I find it hard to believe you can't get a s**t job in some mcdonalds/tesco/warehouse.
I find it hard to believe as well. Recently, I've applied for jobs with B&Q, Homebase, Next, and the local Council, as well as cleaning jobs, and a job with a local engineering firm who want a CAD draftsman. So far, I've not even had an interview.
If I knew the answer, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I can only assume it has something to do with the fact that I'm a 59-year old ex-archaeologist, with a dodgy elbow, increasingly dodgy knees (years of kneeling on cold, hard, damp ground takes it's toll eventually, and I find kneeling and squatting are becoming increasingly difficult), an unconventional work history that doesn't translate well to a CV and is largely meaningless to anybody not an archaeologist, and little in the way of marketable skills.
Geography also comes into play. I live in a medium-sized coastal town at the end of a peninsula bounded by estuaries to the north and south. The only crossings to these rivers, apart from seasonal passenger ferries, are 15 miles inland. I don't drive, and public transport round here is inadequate, at best. It's a semi-rural area, with relatively low unemployment, but with a relatively low population, and correspondingly fewer job opportunities. I've been here a little over two years, I'm still finding my way around, I don't have many contacts, and the locals have got the job market pretty much sewn up.
Before you say "move, then", I can't. I'd be willing to relocate If I were offered a permanent job elsewhere, but I can't afford to move purely on spec.; I have little in the way of savings, and I simply don't have the wherewithal to cover the cost of searching for accommodation, or the costs of transporting my belongings if I found some.
Besides, where would I go? I have no evidence to suggest that what skills I have to offer are in any more demand in the rest of the country than they are here; and wherever I went, I'd have to rent accommodation, which means claiming Housing Benefit. With the recent cuts to HB, the amount of accommodation available to HB claimants has been severely reduced. Wherever I went, it would have to be to somewhere with cheap housing, and that almost inevitably means somewhere with high unemployment. I don't see how that would improve my prospects.
Even in good times, I think I'd be having problems. Under the current conditions... Well, it's a buyer's market out there. With so many people chasing so few jobs, employers can pick and choose. I'm out of condition, out of practice, I've been out of work for 6 years, and David Cameron hasn't helped my prospects by labelling me a "workshy benefit scrounger". Who's going to give me a job when they can get somebody younger, fitter, fresher and better qualified for the same money?