Job-hunting depression is complemented by the false ego boosting that occurs while you’re employed or studying.
When you’re “in”, you are encouraged to overestimate your own contribution to the economy/world. No one keeps each other in check. Then when you’re unemployed, you are forced to confront the reality of your position as a replaceable laborer. Mere personnel. It’s like this at every level, people lying to themselves and each other about their importance, and denigrating the unemployed in order to solidify their own tenuous position.
American slaveowners did too