Why are some programmers unemployed?

1. Many good developers will get stopped right at the gate. Because the ones doing the hiring are certainly not eligible for it. Asking trivial questions will not help you catch false positives.
2. Many companies are looking for a specific skill set. Good developers know programming knowledge is transferable. But companies would rather not take that risk.
3. Hire overqualified employees for terrible pay. Many companies do try that approach. Good developers are just going to skip over.
4. Many candidates have no idea how to rate themselves. They code for a few months and then call themselves experts. So expect to be interviewed by an actual expert. You set unrealistic expectations; you set yourself to fail. Miserably.
5. Loads of companies have no interest in spending any money to train employees. They would rather hire people who are already trained. That does present a problem when you are just out of college, right?
6. Being unemployed is certainly a put-off. Recruiters would rather get an employee to resign than hire an unemployed.