Steven Lowe’s financial goals always seemed just out of reach.
Then, in early 2024, he landed a six-figure art director role at StubHub — the highest-paying job of his career.
“It was the first time I was able to comfortably make my student loan payments,” said Lowe, who’s 41 and lives in Brooklyn.
A little over a year later, he was laid off. He’s still struggling to find a job that good.
Job searching is “like taking a shot in the dark,” Lowe said.
Lowe is among the dozens of job seekers I’ve spoken with over the past year who’ve struggled to navigate a sluggish hiring landscape shaped by cost-cutting, economic uncertainty, and AI adoption. US businesses are hiring at one of the slowest rates since 2013, and as of May, more than a quarter of unemployed workers had been looking for work for 27 weeks or more, the highest level since December 2021.
While searching for full-time employment, many job seekers have turned to part-time work to make ends meet. And even when full-time offers come along, they often carry a steep pay cut.
Applying to anything and everything
Before joining StubHub, Lowe spent nine years as a senior art director at the e-commerce company Boxed. He was laid off around March 2023, shortly before the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Given he’d been out of the job market for nine years — and was reentering at a time when hiring was starting to slow across the US — Lowe said his job search was particularly challenging. By fall, he was done being picky.
“I was applying to any and everything if I even felt remotely capable,” he said.
That’s when he came across a product-design role at StubHub. Lowe said that about halfway through the interview process, the recruiter asked whether he’d be interested in a newly created art director role instead. The company felt his qualifications were a bit lacking for the product-design position, he said, but believed he’d be a strong fit for the art director job.
He started in February 2024.
Then, in mid-April, he learned he was being laid off. Lowe said he doesn’t know why his role was cut, but that other employees were laid off around the same time.
A frustrating return to the job market
Lowe said the end of his time at StubHub was stressful, with several major projects. After the layoff, he decided to collect his severance and take a month off to decompress before job hunting.
Eventually, Lowe started applying for roles through LinkedIn and Indeed while also reaching out to people in his network for leads. He secured a referral for one promising position, but didn’t land it. The benefits of networking were somewhat limited, he said, because many people in his circle were also unemployed and searching for work.
While the rejections were difficult, Lowe said his previous job search had taught him not to take them personally. He knew there were often factors at play behind the scenes that candidates couldn’t see.
“I felt a little stronger mentally this time,” he said.
Read more about people who’ve found themselves at a corporate crossroads
A restaurant job helped him stay afloat
As the months dragged on, Lowe’s unemployment benefits began running out. To make matters worse, he had moved into a more expensive apartment about six months before losing his job.
Fortunately, he had a backup plan. Before building a career in design, Lowe had occasionally worked in the hospitality industry when he needed extra income. So last October, he began looking for restaurant work on Harri — a job platform tailored to the industry — and soon came across an opening for a host position at Rosemary’s, an Italian restaurant in Manhattan’s West Village. He had eaten there for the first time earlier that year.
Lowe applied for the role and received an email the next day inviting him to an open call. Within a few days, he attended the event and was hired as a host.
“I had that job in three days as opposed to waiting weeks and weeks for interviews for roles that never panned out,” Lowe said. “It was wild.”
The position paid $22 an hour and provided roughly 26 hours of work a week — enough to help cover bills, but not replace Lowe’s previous income. He continued applying for art and creative direction roles during his time at the restaurant.
This spring, a friend told Lowe about an administrative assistant opening. Lowe had previously done freelance design work for the company in 2023, so he already knew the products, team, and how the business operated.
The opportunity was different from what he had been looking for, but it offered more stable hours and slightly better pay than the restaurant role. In May, he accepted the position and left the restaurant.
The new role provides what amounts to full-time hours but pays substantially less than his former StubHub job — Lowe estimates roughly 60% to 70% less annually. While the role has helped him regain some financial stability, Lowe said he eventually hopes to return to work in the field where he spent more than a decade of his career.
“It’s not a total solve to my career job search issues,” he said. “But it’s an improvement that I’m grateful for.”
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