New York Life interview questions

I applied for a role and months later was contacted by a recruiter. I am a former employee that was laid off in 2022 and have not been able to find work since. I also have a Master's degree and years of internal experience at NYL in different departments. The recruiter basically laughed on the phone and said 'wouldn't want to be in your position right now that's for sure'. The economy is really tough out there and I had thought they would want to re-hire former employees they made redundant; it seems they do not care. Also, years back the compensation brackets were better. Now, it seems they want to get associates at a lower compensation range and senior associates at lower ranges. This may be feasible in low cost of living cities but NYL is HQ'ed in NYC where the cost of living index is high. How exactly is someone supposed to live off of 36k-65k salary in NYC as an associate? It feels like they terminated certain departments and then re-created the roles at cheaper rates. I did not find any compassion or empathy or even a willingness to place former employees when speaking to this recruiter or making it to the hiring manager round. They treat you like an external candidate and worse than that -- they show no consideration for the fact that you've been long term unemployed after having been laid off by NYL. I was even asked 'what have you been doing all this time?' I'm not sure what's going on with the recruitment team but the experience was extremely patronizing and lacking awareness for the current economic state. They also post the same roles over and over and over again, they'll interview people and then keep posting the same roles for a period of six months to 18 months. If you can't hire someone out of the thousands of unemployed (some of whom are former employees you laid off), then what is going on? Are they posting fake jobs or are they looking for a unicorn to accept a job for 30k in NYC?

Very nice interviewer, great company that seems like they really want their employees to succeed. Seems like training is very good there and that they get you where you need to go in the field.