The job market is plenty welcoming but likely not in Seattle or SF or NY or Austin.
This excuse “I had to get a PhD because I was tired of sitting around” is both irritating and self-serving.
New grads who are prepared to start at the bottom (it is called a ladder for a reason) and don’t have a medical need to live near their childhood home need to understand how to launch. It’s called entry level and it goes up from there.
I also know kids who couldn’t quite deign to take the jobs for which they were qualified so they kick the can down the road by going to grad school.
Bad, bad, bad idea. Bite the bullet kid. Move to Tampa or St. Louis or Springfield MA and get launched.