the hardest thing for me and everyone else in my circle to accept, was that those jobs were simply gone at that pay rate. It wasn’t that I needed to go “pound the pavement” more, or put out more resumes. The jobs market had simply changed, and my job was one of the holdouts from a previous “money is no object” economy. Of all the dozens of people I knew in my general line of work, I don’t know a single one of them who’s in the same line of work, at the same rate they made even five years ago, let alone what should have been steady yearly increases to cover cost-of-living increases.
Long story short, your DH may be reaching for a salary that no longer exists, regardless of his experience, training, skills, whatever. That’s not a reflection on him; that’s a reflection of The New Normal. If that position was a job he wanted and it met the other criteria you both had in terms of commute time, etc, and the only issue was the income, I’d still take it. Beats the heck out of asking “would you like fries with that?” And it definitely beats out those unemployment checks, which will eventually dry up. Fifty thousand dollars would give you a heckuva lot more than the $100 you’re short each month. And if by some miracle that better salary comes along, THEN he can grab it. But holding out for it? Might be a long wait for a train that ain’t comin’.