I think it happened to everybody. Also during the dot com bust, there was a bit of ageism and discrimination. One I’ve heard is that if you were out of work for a long time as in more than 6 months, companies wanted to find out what were you’ve been doing, how you were able to keep up with technology. Just looking for jobs was not good enough. I have one friend who has been unemployed since, perhaps for that reason. He took classes for a few years to wait out.
While in the past, I have been unemployed but found job after a year off. Nobody questioned why I was off for more than 6 months. My skill was intact because I’ve got compliment from the PhD guy that hired me. But after the dot com bust, people invented things to not hire you.