I can feel your frustration - it's all too familiar.
I've lost my job in November last year due to [sarcasm]recession that does not exist in Australia[/sarcasm]. At the beginning I looked at it as a prolonged holiday - redundancy money was good and I had plenty of time to do things I liked without being tired all the time. But after a few months and many unanswered calls/emails/applications, or polite rejactions that are sometimes almost absurd (you are exactly kind of person that we need if only you had a bit more experiance - I can take a course in anything except in getting more experiance) it started to p!ss me off. Seriously. Even a couple of interview that I went to were complete waste of my time and money.
I'm a mechanical engineer specialized in HVAC (this sounds like the beginning of my cover letter
) and unless people start building again seriously in Australia or I somehow manage to miraculously double up my experiance, I don't find my prospects of finding a new job in that branch good. My wife is working and she has a good salary, so it's not that things are really bad, but I'm sick of staying home all day, thinking three times before deciding to buy something and most of all checking adds, applying and waiting for the answer.
I'm currently overseas, but as soon as I get back, I'll try to find any job (well almost any). Hopefully I'll have more luck there and this crap that is going on cannot last forever.
So, yes, I understand the way you feel...