Kristy Layden was tired of opening LinkedIn and seeing one person after another post about being laid off while she was recovering from her own job loss.

The 45-year-old in Frisco, Texas, was a senior manager in e-commerce and fulfillment at a large retailer until her job was eliminated in early 2025. And it seemed every day she saw someone else in her network lose their job too, she says.

"It was becoming a recurring theme," she tells CNBC Make It. "If it wasn't somebody I knew directly, there were other people posting about it."

Companies announced over 1.2 million job cuts in 2025, according to global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the highest annual total since 2020 and the seventh highest since 1989. Job cuts announced in January this year hit their highest level since 2009.

Researchers from Glassdoor wrote in November that "forever layoffs" are here, referring to smaller but more common layoffs as opposed to bigger, rarer job cuts. Rolling layoffs can "create cultures of anxiety, insecurity and resentment," they added. For those who've lost their jobs, the low-hire, low-fire economy has made it more challenging to find new ones.

After a futile job search spanning more than a year, Layden says, she decided to go back to school to become a nurse. Healthcare jobs have been propping up the job market as other industries trail behind in job growth. Employment of registered nurses specifically is projected to increase 5% from 2024 to 2034, faster than the 3% average across all occupations, according to the most recently available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Layden says her career change stemmed from a pull toward nursing as well as a push away from the volatility and outdated norms of the corporate world. "I wasn't allowed to be who I am," she says, adding that she felt being direct and asking questions about decisions, for example, were often frowned upon. "That was not a fun environment for me."

Layden didn't immediately decide to pursue nursing when she lost her job. She had prior experience in product management and looked for more of the same. But she says she wasn't seeing results: She estimates she sent more than 250 applications over more than a year. Of those, she moved forward in the hiring process on roughly 25, she says.

"I remember in the beginning thinking, if I don't have a job in six months, something is wrong," she says. "And then six months came."

She cast a wider net to include project and program management roles as well and at one point even tried two services that used AI to apply to roles on her behalf, she says. But they often applied to roles requiring more technical experience than she had or roles she wouldn't have chosen herself.

About a year into her search, Layden says she was feeling exhausted, thinking: "How on earth is this happening, and how is it happening for this long?"

Many other job seekers in the U.S. have similarly struggled with long-term unemployment. In June, roughly 27.3% of unemployed Americans, or more than 1.9 million people, were looking for work for more than half a year, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

A long, drawn-out job search can take its toll professionally, mentally and financially. It sapped Layden's interest and motivation, she says. "I can't do this anymore," she remembers thinking, "but I have to do this."

To get by while she was job-searching, she says she relied on support from her parents, sold jewelry and handbags for extra money, and cashed out her 401(k).

Layden wanted out of her rut and decided to pivot. Personal experience informed her choice of nursing: Layden says she has gotten Botox and filler, and she's currently most interested in being a nurse anesthetist or a nurse injector in esthetics.

Nursing also seemed like a more resilient profession to Layden than the ones from which she and her peers were getting laid off, she says. Many highly skilled healthcare roles are considered some of the safest from the risk of AI displacement.

"I'm pretty sure what I'm thinking of doing is not going to be replaced," she says. When it comes to putting "needles in your face or putting you under for a surgery," she says, "you want people" doing that.

Layden started an accelerated online program on Monday and says she's excited to learn and "tap into a different side" of her brain.

She says she's taking out loans to pay for school, getting some tuition help from family, and looking for remote part-time work, like as a virtual assistant or doing data entry, to cover other expenses. She says not having kids or a family to support made her decision easier, but she wishes she'd pursued nursing sooner.

She expects to be in nursing school for roughly the next two years. While she can't turn back the clock, she says she at least hopes to work in nursing until she retires.

"I'm starting from scratch essentially, and I'm not young," she says. "It's going to be a pretty long road."

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