When dh and ds lost their jobs in 2015

they went from being a “there is a shortage” to “there is an over abundance” type of employees. You all know how long they were unemployed. When both got back to work they each had to take a 25% cut in pay from what they had been previously making, with fewer benefits. Neither is back to that original salary yet. Even with the good pay raises they’ve received. Add to that the cost of taxes and insurance has gone up and both are still making about 75% bring home of what they were in 2015 and trust me groceries, utilities and such have NOT gone down. Only our debt has gone down.
But guess what, we adjusted, we adapted, and we are moving on. If either of them had said they would “wait” most likely neither of them would be working in their preferred field right now. There is still a glut of designer/drafters in a limited market.
Unemployment runs out, Cobra runs out, like you said, a cut in pay is better than “Do you want fries with that.”