Employment - a real problem!

I recently read that 20% of males, ages 25-54, have been out of work for six months or more (original source: TIME Magazine, but has been referenced over and over on the web).  One in five people in the historically most-employable age bracket are unable to find work.  If you don't know people affected by this, you really ought to get out more.  It seems everywhere I turn there are more and more people unable to find work: people laid off work, unable to find work once education is complete, and self-employed people without enough work to get by.  For two or more years Rob has come home from work and told me about more and more cabinet shops that have gone out of business.  One would think that their misfortune could improve his chances of getting work, but that has not been the case.  There just aren't enough people wanting cabinets/woodworking for all the businesses that have been kept alive in the past.  So what is a person to do?  Here's one idea:

“Sometimes I think I’d be better off in jail,” [Cynthia Norton] says, only half joking. “I’d have three meals a day and structure in my life. I’d be able to go to school. I’d have more opportunities if I were an inmate than I do here trying to be a contributing member of society.”  (Source: Yahoo article) 

It is particularly depressing to me when it seems we've scaled back as far as we can and yet still struggle to "make it".  Everyone has ideas for everyone else about what they should or shouldn't be doing, but let's face it: it's tough out there right now and there just isn't a simple solution.