Junior engineer. Hundreds of applications across 3 months. Nothing but silence and automated rejections. It's got me feeling so down that I'm just going to leave the private sector for military. Get some training, have some job security, benefits, and hopefully wait out the horrible market.

Are you only looking regionally or across your whole country? (Presumably the US)

US, yes, and I'm in a particularly bad region for tech, so I'm searching across multiple states and also across the country. I'm currently employed as a remote worker and it's killing me. It gives me very few opportunities to network. I did high school online and graduated college online due to the pandemic, so my network is already super suffering as it is.

Late to this thread, but if you're filling out forms, be sure to set your location lived to wherever the company you're applying to is. Also set your linkedin location to your preferred tech hub location. Even that helped me get through a lot of resumes filters when I was looking.

Also, there's really not a substitute to getting out to a place in person. For me at least, it really helped getting out of my smallish Arizona town and moving to Phoenix. There's several reddit threads and apps where you can couch surf, just be honest that you're having a hard time getting your career started and that will open some doors for you.

Once you're there though, get out and meet people. Go to as many professional and special interest meet ups as you can and talk to people saying that you're new to the area and looking for work. Even events like non-fiction book clubs indirectly led me to meeting people that have given me job leads. Research companies in the area on linkedin that interest you and cold call/twitter DM engineers or leads in the company and offer to buy them a cup of coffee and pick their brain. Having this unique interest in their company and bringing a bit of enthusiasm when learning about it goes miles. I honestly believe two weeks in a location is worth two months cold applying online; especially for someone just starting out.

edit: Final thing, have at least one project you're proud of that you can demo and show off to people that you meet. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you have to be able to talk about it with enthusiasm. A web-app. A video of a circuit you made if you're EE. Something that shows you can execute and aren't just someone that's all talk.

> a broader trend

That's pretty scary too, though. If it was just you (or me, or a specific person), you (or me, etc.) could strive to improve. If there's nothing out there, there's nothing you can do.