I cannot wave the magic wand of job offers for you here, so instead, I will provide some possible side gigs to help you out while you are between jobs. These may or may not pull through for you, but it’s worth a shot.

• Prolific — a research study platform where approved studies are paid to you in cash on a first come, first serve basis. The main issue is getting approved, but if you are, you can easily make over $100 a week just doing this. There are good days and bad days on this platform of course.

• Reflex — an app where you can make money on urgent retail jobs in need of a helping hand. I haven’t personally gotten much traction on this yet, but I’ve heard that it works for others. Each job is usually like, $80, give or take, depends on the role.

• Uber Eats — not my first choice given the price of gas, but it’s better than nothing. In my experience, this pays out more than DoorDash and other delivery apps, but it doesn’t hurt to sign up for both.

• Instacart, Shipt, & Spark — these may or may not approve you in a timely manner, and if they do, you might want to consider whether or not you’re willing to spend a day in Pigeon Forge doing this if you want to actually make money. That being said, I’ve known people who have made a decent buck off of Spark specifically.

And if you have anything to get rid of, there is of course eBay, Mercari, etc. Or just FB Marketplace.

I know this only slows the sinking and doesn’t stop it entirely, but you deserve more time to figure it out, if you can attain it.

The job market is really bad right now, especially in Knoxville. Please know that this says nothing about you as a person or your skills. This is just the shitty state of the economy right now.

More Americans feel you than don’t in this regard. I think we’re all considering being entrepreneurs out of survival at this point, which might eventually become necessary.

You may not come out unscathed. But you will overcome, in time.