There are ways to sort job postings to avoid "ghost" jobs, or ones that have either lingered on the internet too long or were never meant to be filled, writes career counselor Robin Ryan. Applying to these jobs are not worth your time, and Ryan suggests reaching out to the company to check if it is still an active hire.

Especially when starting out in the workforce, focus on a five-year plan instead of a one-year plan so you learn skills that will help you grow in each job, suggests Tony Trepanier. "Instead of asking for a fancy salary or a fancy office or something, ask for access to certain meetings or certain responsibilities -- things that would act as resume items two or three years down the line," Trepanier says.

In addition to widespread unemployment, the pandemic has caused companies across the country to cut the salaries of some employees they kept on. "The source of unemployment in a crisis like this is a lack of aggregate demand. Pay cuts are only going to make that worse," says economics professor J.W. Mason.

There are plenty of ways to build your skills during the economic downturn, including taking online courses. Udemy has 100,000 professional courses available; edX offers university-level courses; LinkedIn Learning focuses on technology and creative courses; and Codecademy offers Java, HTML and higher-level tech learning.

Bill Buford is a James Beard Award winner with a new book out that shares some yummy secrets about French cooking, and he is offering a free class online today. Buford is quite the Renaissance man as he is also a heck of a writer, having penned a book about soccer hooligans called "Among The Thugs."

Not only are stimulus funds showing up via debit cards with incorrect names on them, the cards are arriving in unfamiliar envelopes that have led some people to throw them away without opening them.