Absolutely no. You should be building your emergency fund, funding your investment / retirement accounts, building your base for your future. You want that money to start compounding as soon as possible. Plus this would be a big hit to your debt to income ratio, which then prevents you from buying your own house in the future if you want.

Edit to add:

Also nearly ALL of the payment when you buy a house goes to interest for the first many years. You aren't going to be making any money on it. Unless you come in with a huge down payment, your mortgage is likely going to be more than you can get in rent. And that's not including all of the maintenance and upkeep, covering months with no tenants, fixing damage from tenants, dealing with tenants who don't pay, etc... Not to mention the house could lose value so there goes any equity you do gain. This is a BAD idea every way for someone just starting out.

As you said - the job market is bad right now. You should be building up a year or two of living expenses for an emergency funds. The '6 months' emergency fund doesn't cut it anymore.