My advice to all those unemployed is to simply get a job, below your qualifications if you have too. Once you're working, earning some money, getting out of the house. You'll probably feel better and it'll look better on the cv that you've been working instead of sitting at home.
Beyond that, simply use friends and contacts to get work. Sometimes its the only way to get a break. After I finished my degree (arts with a major in film) I was unemployed for about four months or so and I had about 8 paid freelance video jobs collapse in a row (thanks to everyone not wanting to spend much money at the moment for obvious reasons). The first job I got was the family business, casual work two days a week. My second casual job I got about a month ago through a friend. The second job is for Sony working in their DVD/BR mastering department. That means I'm basically working on the releases of all of the big films. So now I have two casual jobs and I work the full 5 days a week.
All of which is from contacts, friends, family etc. Now that I work at Sony, it will be far easier to find a better job if one comes up because I have a lot of experience with a well known corporation.
The point of my post is simple, use every resource you have to get the job and if you can't get what you really want, settle for something a bit less since its still better then unemployment and government welfare.
