Job-hunting woes

Job hunting has always been the most demoralizing thing I do in my life. Funerals are more fun. But posting application after application, and either hearing nothing at all ("Did my e-mail with resume vanish into a black hole, or what?") or the usual "Sorry, you don't meet our needs at this time" just frankly sucks. Nothing like rejection after rejection, day in and day out, to make you appreciate yourself... as a useless waste of space who is obviously not competent to function as an adult in the Real World.

Now I'm getting a new twist: "Sorry, but we require more recent experience." Never mind that I've been out of the job market for five years because of family obligations and a fucking hurricane wrecking my town, all they care about is I haven't worked in my career field since late 2002.

So if you stop working in a technical field for a few years, what, you're supposed to just go on welfare or work a minimum wage job for the rest of your life? You can't start back up at maybe a lower level of seniority or something?

From what I saw of my fellow contractor-programmers when I was working, even with five years of rust, I'm smarter and better than 90% of the wallys out there. But will I get a chance to prove it?