In this country, a lot of companies hire entry-level people (that means almost no money), part-time, and even temps and co-ops. They want to try you out before they commit themselves. But people with ability can move up fast.

A good example is my wife. She started with part-time and temporary jobs. She was a Saturday secretary for a lawyer. That's a half-day minimum wage job. She was also a substitute teacher, an insurance clerk part time at the hospital, and stuff like that. But the job at the law office got her noticed and she got a job as an entry-level clerical at a government think-tank at Oak Ridge. In a few weeks she was secretary to a group of researchers. It was a lot more work, but what seemed like a huge raise at the time. In five years, she was the boss's scretary and making more money than a teacher who was past the max-out point of 20 years. The margin between my salary and hers continued to grow until I retired and my 33 years on the job retirement is only sightly better than her 20 years. She didn't even look for work until the kids were in high school and we were facing college expenses.

It looks grim, but you may have to try something like that. You have the talent to move up.
Howard