I think yours is the most common story.
I read an article on Reddit about something very similar; It's on the tip of my brain, but I can't recall.
The jist was that after the latest recession there was very little in the way job "churn", or where people would quit jobs and move to others. There as a noticeable trend of staying at whatever company they were at, and working, even if there was a serious mismatch between skills and job. They theorized that this was because the job market was so tight, and that they had been burned so many times, that they held on to a known job (even if terrible) to keep their finances in shape.
Then, if you're in nerdy work (just assuming you are), then there's been a lack of a rebound in such jobs after the last major downturn. However "blue collar" (not so nerdy?) jobs have bounced back. And so finding work in nerdy fields is especially challenging at the moment.