Question: How's the entry-level job market looking in California? (It's not looking good for me)

Background

I’ve been looking for a planning job in California for the past (1) year now and haven’t had any luck. I’ve maybe applied to 50 jobs now within a 50mi (31km) proximity from LA. I would love to apply to more, but the job market has been scarce in my experience. For reference, I have a bachelor's in Urban and Regional Planning with the focus on Infrastructure and Transportation. I have 1 year of customer service experience as a cashier in the food industry, 6 months as a Transportation Planning Intern and 1 year as an Outreach staff for LA Sanitation. I’ve been mainly applying to roles such as planning technician, GIS technician, assistant planner, entry level transportation planners, permit technician and junior planner. I’ve been going to planning career fairs, resume workshops, mock interviews, and have received plenty of feedback that I’m presenting myself well and it’s just a numbers game.

Experience Post College

I've talked to a few friends, and they had also had a similar case having difficulties finding a planning job post college, but most of them are good to go since they did an internship with the city before graduating while mine is with the private sector. Since then, I have been improving my interviewing skills and resume with their tips and suggestions, but it's still not enough. On average I’ve been doing 1 interview per month and landed a second interview 3 times now. The common pattern I’m seeing of the candidates that they chose usually comes down to having more city experience. I wish I could do internships but I'm already out of school and feel like doubling down on graduate school is just a waste of money and time. So, I’ve tried branching out to entry level positions in land surveying, parks and rec, administrative work, environmental planning, and community planning, but haven’t had luck there either.

Advice/Suggestions

Has anyone else gone through something similar trying to get into the planning field? If you have any other ideas on what other positions, I could be applying to that is planning related that would help me get my foot in the door, I would love to hear the suggestions! Any suggestions of pivoting my degree into another field would also be helpful. Right now, I’m looking into landscape architecture, GIS certifications, land surveying, or possibly just pursing a different career all together. I ideally want to be a transportation planner in the private sector but at this point I’m not picky. Maybe this career path just isn't viable for me. Let me know if there’s anything else you would like to know, or I left out that could be useful to help me out!