In 2001 engineering jobs were hard to come by but you didn’t see many engineers working at home depot. Same with the early 90s.

I agree- I have lived and survived through both of these recessions, in 1993 when I graduated college and had zero work experience which was painful and had to work a crap job to gain experience and again in 2002 when the software company layed me off and my severance package kept me afloat until I found work almost a year later. Not fun. But I learned to budget and live below my means for the hard times. I drive an old car but its paid off and I have zero debt.