On October 16th, 2024, I found myself unemployed. While some say unemployment can be a time to relax and catch up on sleep, this really wasn\u2019t the case. My unemployment became a conditional liminal space, between stable pay that was without an expiration date (Odoardi et al. 2022).<\/p>\n What unemployment as a liminal space feels like. Drawing by author.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n My boyfriend at the time had been unemployed for over 4 years. As a social scientist, I found this perplexing, and as a girlfriend, it gave me chest pain. After some research, it turned out this phenomenon had many names and variations, from \u2018lying flat\u2019 (Pan 2026), NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) (Odoardi et al. 2022), to \u201cstay-at-home boyfriend.\u201d \u00a0This is kind of a new role reversal from \u00a0young US workers that differs from previous family work arrangements of the past. We were living in Austin and the surrounding areas, in areas where younger people tended to live and a very visible NEET population. By 2026, women outnumbered men in the workforce (Gioino 2026). Back in 2024, this was my nightmare \u2013 my thirty-year old boyfriend was lying flat (intentional pun) and as much as I tried, I could only get part-time jobs.<\/p>\n When I asked why my then boyfriend wouldn\u2019t get a job? he would say, \u201cBecause I don\u2019t want them treating me like shit.\u201d \u00a0While we were both unemployed, I found our situations to be different. Generalized unemployment is also gendered. Men\u2019s long-term unemployment can be characterized by disempowerment and emasculation (Willott & Griffin 1997). It didn\u2019t seem to occur to him that this excuse made me the unwitting breadwinner. He would lie and say he applied for jobs; unemployment was a taboo subject for him. In contrast, I talked openly about my unemployment and was optimistic that I would find a better company than my last one.<\/p>\n However, at times my optimism faltered. My unemployment seeped beyond 9 am to 5pm. Grocery store checkouts, talking on the phone with my mom, and meeting strangers who inevitably ask the question, \u201cSo, what do you do?\u201d These would remind me that my capitalist and patriarchal society is closely tied to my employment status and bleeds into my personal relationships. My precarious state has evolved into a greater liminal presence called ambient violence. Ambient violence is defined by Docot as past continual exploitation that has been normalized (Docot 2026). The ambient violence that results from liminal unemployment draws from a history of exploitation and a lack of workers\u2019 rights, where healthcare, food access, and housing are tied to employment that can end at a minute\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n My ambient violence liminality increased the gender disparity of unemployment; my former boyfriend felt dehumanized and would hide his unemployment from his friends to avoid low social approval. Sometimes it appeared to the point of infantilization because he didn\u2019t provide for anyone, refusing to even get a consistent part-time job; instead, he would occasionally deliver food on his bicycle. (Plank 2024). On the other side of this disparity, as a woman, I found that the problem was not as much about the status of unemployment but about overcoming barriers to employment. I was worried about problems like gender bias, a comparatively lower salary, and a stall in progress toward closing the gender wage gap (Lau et al. 2022). However, I couldn\u2019t even get interviews because of these problems. My sister would point out that my then-boyfriend could get a job quicker than me if he wanted to because hiring has gender bias. Even NEETs have gender discrepancies, apparently; GDP per capita is negatively correlated with the probability of being NEET, and the decrease for women is 4% stronger for this correlation (Odoardi et al. 2022). Growing GDP signals differently. However, some speculate that the US\u2019s GDP did not grow in 2026 without AI investment spending (e.g., Atlantic Council 2026, Jim 2025). So, does this count if very few jobs are created while fanning the smoke of AI? I am increasingly worried about future work if companies were dumping billions into replacing several sectors of the economy.<\/p>\n Anyway, despite all that, I was determined to be unemployed for only a couple of months. I had a part-time job while I applied to as many jobs as I was qualified for on several job platforms. I applied on the popular ones like LinkedIn, Indeed, and smaller search engines like HiringCafe. I went to job fairs when available and asked old coworkers, friends, and family if they knew of any open positions. I quickly found that these job boards were oversaturated. Hundreds of people would apply to positions within a couple of hours of them being posted. I pivoted to my university\u2018s hiring platform access, but those were mostly low-paying entry-level sales jobs, not very many for workers with 3 years of experience. I applied for hundreds of jobs over the first six months of unemployment.<\/p>\n I also found that most job search advice became quickly outdated. \u201cJust apply on LinkedIn or on a website.\u201d This probably would have worked in 2013; however, by 2024, the links I clicked on companies\u2019 websites were stale and old. It was common for hiring managers to forget to take down the job post. These stale or fake job postings are commonly called \u2018ghost jobs.\u2019 Ghost jobs are job ads posted for job positions that don\u2019t exist or have no intention of filling the position. The ads themselves make companies appear like they are growing, while the applications mine the personal data of applicants (Grimm 2025). So many job postings didn\u2019t respond, or I got rejected several months later. Recruiters had months-long waitlists for temporary contract roles.<\/p>\n At this point, multiple people recommended using ChatGPT; however, every other job seeker was also using products like this to create cover letters and rewrite resumes. The playing field changed so quickly it didn\u2019t really provide an advantage. I also used ChatGPT to review my resume for a job posting. I input my resume and queried what roles I could apply for and how to find roles like those, but many of them were stale links or ghost jobs. I tried using it for cover letters, and even queried it, \u201cAm I qualified for this job?\u201d The output I received was not helpful. LLMs (especially back in May 2025) did not have the capability to compare soft skills to each other, and many find that the interface is sycophantic or overly agreeable (Fetzer 2026). This ultimately was a waste of time for me.<\/p>\n Wasting time with ChatGPT felt like the definition of insanity. I kept making similar cover letters with it and creating similar Workday accounts for different companies to submit almost the same resume.\u00a0 It felt like I was doing the same things repeatedly and expecting the same results. Some people write LLM commands for automatic resume screeners; however, these had mixed results and don\u2019t guarantee an interview (Gorelick 2025). In September 2025, I broke up with my boyfriend, who ended up getting a job after six weeks of searching. I moved to Houston.<\/p>\n All the tactics I used surely are not how people get jobs. I would see articles about how a manager would submit their own resume and their application tracking system would auto-reject it (Patel 2024). Even more concerning, the Department of Labor has been constantly revising the number of jobs added to the economy from a month prior, and the most recent revision showed that their original estimate was off by 911,000 openings (Aspan et. al. 2025). Also, this was a gendered problem, as application tracking systems have a bias against women (Zeala 2025).<\/p>\n How can an AI resume scanner have a bias toward women, while women are simultaneously surpassing the number of men in the workforce?<\/p>\n In early October 2025,\u00a0 \u00a0I did get a job a couple of days shy of my first anniversary of unemployment. And I didn\u2019t use the internet; it came from a different type of network \u2013 my family. In fact, a family friend sent me a job posting for a logistics and supply chain administrative assistant in a contract-to-hire role. I started on November 3rd, and four months later I accepted a full-time role as a supply chain distribution planner and analyst. I thought I was through using AI tools. The finance advisor at my new company trained us to use Claude AI. Even in manufacturing, \u00a0somehow the \u201cunlimited\u201d use cases of AI would prevail, somehow\u2026 but it needs to be in the form of a spreadsheet, and several APIs need to be connected. And the inputs need to resemble an email to a clueless intern.<\/p>\n AI has widened the liminal space of unemployment, and the \u201climitless\u201d capability of AI job-seeking tools has also exploded. Using AI job tools felt like putting out a fire with a bucket of fire. I was trying to use a ChatGPT-edited cover letter in an ATP application system, in the hopes of getting a video prompt interview that would eventually lead to seeing a real person. Using a chatbot to apply to a screening system to get a video interview that would measure my eye contact and pauses. This \u201cpowerful\u201d tool has effectively erased a way to showcase interpersonal skills and other desirable workplace soft skills.<\/p>\n Unemployment creates a liminal space, with average unemployment time increasing since 2023 (Average Weeks Unemployed). This creates more precarity yet remains hidden behind \u201cAI opportunity\u201d. Thus, this precarity manifests in ambient violence that ebbs into public liminal spaces.<\/p>\n The Backrooms, an internet-born depiction of an uncanny, endless in-between space, provide a visual metaphor for the experience of being stuck in the liminal space of unemployment. [Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons].<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Looking back on how I clawed my way out of liminal backrooms-esque unemployment was how much I learned about modern hiring. I found that the path is fraught with gendered disparity and amplified by the ambient violence of hiring practices and the new adoption of AI screening and interview practices. Seeking employment has always been gendered; however, it\u2019s now increasingly being done by gender-biased computers, the future of work is contract and temporary, and networking is increasingly moving offline.<\/p>\n Overall, the best piece of technology for job hunting for me was growing a face-to-face social network and using Google Maps. With my network, I joined a run club which had people of all ages and job levels. With Google Maps, I searched for businesses block by block in an area near my house, then clicked on their website\u2019s job boards. Using this technique, I got an interview and an offer.<\/p>\n I leave you with this:<\/p>\n Dear Future employers:<\/p>\n Post jobs locally using local job boards, participate at job fairs, and use trained humans to read resumes.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Anna<\/p>\n This post was curated by\u00a0 Contributing Editor Sameeha Vardhan <\/a><\/span>and reviewed by Contributing Editor Ritu Ghosh\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Aspan, Maria, Scott Horsley, and Danielle Kurtzleben. 2025. \u201cBLS Revision Shows Annual Hiring Was Overstated by 911,000 Jobs.\u201d Economy. NPR, September 9. https:\/\/www.npr.or<\/u>g\/2025\/09\/09\/nxs1-5527000\/bls-us-<\/u>job-<\/u>growth-numbers-revised<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n Atlantic Council, dir. 2026. AI, Supply Chains, and Trade Resets: The Global Economy in 2026. 46:10. https:\/\/www.<\/u>youtube.com\/watch?v=zZHN0-ZNe_4<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cAverage Weeks Unemployed.\u201d 2026. August 7. https:\/\/fred.stlouisfed.or<\/u>g\/series\/UEMPMEAN<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n Docot, Dada. n.d. Town of Dollars. Accessed September 2, 2026. https:\/\/uwapress.uw.edu \/book\/9780295754703\/town-of-dollars\/<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n Edwards, Jim. 2025. \u201cA Huge Chunk of U.S. GDP Growth Is Being Kept Alive by AI Spending \u2018with No Guaranteed Return,\u2019 Deutsche Bank Says.\u201d Fortune. https:\/\/fortune.com\/2025\/12\/23\/us-<\/u>gdp-alive-b<\/u>y-aicapex\/<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n Fetzer. 2026. \u201cAI-Powered Chatbots Can Become Too Agreeable over Time, Researchers Report | Penn State University.\u201d March 18. https:\/\/www.psu.edu\/news\/information-sciences-and-technolo<\/u>gy\/stor<\/u>y\/aipowered-chatbots-can-become-too-a<\/u>greeable-over-time<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n Gioino, Catherina. n.d. \u201cFor the Third Time in History, Women Outnumber Men in the Workforce as the Stay-at-Home Boyfriend Becomes an Economic Trend.\u201d Fortune. Accessed September 2, 2026. https:\/\/fortune.com\/article\/wh<\/u>y-are-men-leavin<\/u>g-the-workforce-more-women-outnumber\/<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n Gorelick, Evan. 2025. \u201cRecruiters Use A.I. to Scan R\u00e9sum\u00e9s. Applicants Are Trying to Trick It.\u201d Business. The New York Times, October 7. https:\/\/www.n<\/u>ytimes.com\/2025\/10\/07\/business\/ai-chatbot-promptsresumes.html<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n Grimm, Daniel J. 2025. \u201cGhost Jobs.\u201d Columbia Law Review 125 (7): 183\u2013204.<\/cite><\/p>\n Lau, Vienne W., Veronica L. Scott, Meg A. Warren, and Michelle C. Bligh. 2023. \u201cMoving from Problems to Solutions: A Review of Gender Equality Interventions at Work Using an Ecological Systems Approach.\u201d Journal of Organizational Behavior 44 (2): 399\u2013419. https:\/\/doi.or<\/u>g\/10.1002\/<\/u>job.2654<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n Odoardi, Iacopo, Dario D\u2019Ingiullo, and Davide Quaglione. 2023. \u201cGender Disparities between Young and Adult NEETs: Do We Need a More Refined Policy Approach?\u201d Applied Economics 55 (56): 6685\u201399. https:\/\/doi.or<\/u>g\/10.1080\/00036846.2022.2161991<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n Pan, Jiawei, and Pei-Luen Patrick Rau. 2026. \u201cLooking into Workplace Lying Flat: Understanding Underlying Causes and Providing Intervention Measures.\u201d Current Psychology 45 (3): 225. https:\/\/doi.or<\/u>g\/10.1007\/s12144-025-08813-9<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n Patel, Vinay. 2024. \u201c\u2018Lazy and Mediocre\u2019 HR Team Fired After Manager\u2019s Own CV Gets Auto-Rejected in Seconds, Exposing System Failure.\u201d International Business Times UK, September 27. https:\/\/www.ibtimes.co.uk\/laz<\/u>y-mediocre-hr-team-fired-after-mana<\/u>gers-own-cv-<\/u>gets-auto-re<\/u>jectedseconds-exposin<\/u>g-s<\/u>ystem-1727202<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n Plank, Lesego Linda. 2024. \u201c\u2018The Undesirables\u2019: Black Middle-Class Women Versus Unemployed Men.\u201d In Love in Jozi: The Black Middle Class, Love and Intimacy in Johannesburg, 1st ed., edited by Grace Khunou. UJ Press. https:\/\/doi.or<\/u>g\/10.36615\/9780906785324-03<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n Willott, Sara, and Christine Griffin. 1997. \u201c`Wham Bam, Am I a Man?\u2019: Unemployed Men Talk about Masculinities.\u201d Feminism & Psychology 7 (1): 107\u201328. https:\/\/doi.or<\/u>g\/10.1177\/0959353597071012<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n Zeala, Pinto. 2025. \u201cINVISIBLE FILTERS: HOW DIGITAL AND HUMAN BIAS SHAPE WOMEN\u2019S JOB SEARCH IN HIGH-TECH. EXPLORING ORGANIZATIONAL GATEKEEPING, AI TOOLS, AND THE GENDERED HIRING EXPERIENCE IN THE DIGITAL AGE.\u201d In EU Digital Strategy: Governance, Innovation and Business. Editura Universit\u0103\u0163ii \u00bbAlexandru Ioan Cuza\u00ab din Ia\u015fi. https:\/\/www.ceeol.com\/search\/chapter-detail?id=1397067<\/u><\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Illustration](\"http:\/\/blog.castac.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/Picture1.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"An](\"http:\/\/blog.castac.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/Picture1-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nReferences<\/b><\/h2>\n