Newly qualified UK nurses struggling to find work

This is my first post on here and I would never usually post anything so publicly, but this is an issue I’m really struggling with and I’m trying to figure out if it’s something others are having a hard time with.

I qualified in nursing back in September 2024. I left my previous job thinking I would find a nursing role within a few months and would enjoy a bit of time off in between. 6 months later and I’m no closer to finding my first job in nursing. I was told, like all student nurses were, it’s ‘a job for life’ and it’s a ‘guaranteed career’, come to now and I’m disheartened, stressed beyond belief and embarrassed.

I know the potential reasons why it’s been more of a struggle with budget cuts, covid, the previous government filling the gap with international nurses, hiring caps. But this is baffling to me. I wish I’d worked my way up into becoming a nurse instead of going to university.

I’ve had so many friends, family friends, friends of friends help me by either looking over my applications, giving me advice or talking to someone they work with to try get me there but with no luck. I’ve been told by a few different positions that I have to understand I was up against ‘experienced individuals who had more examples and knowledge outside of student based learning’. Well duh, of course I was but I can’t help that.

I don’t know if I’m missing graduate opportunities or it’s something I’m not doing right, but I’ve had that much input from health care professionals and my own uni who I reached out to for help, it can’t be fully down to me. At this point I’m thinking I either need to move abroad or leave nursing completely. Neither I want to do but what choice do I have?