"Unemployed" is never a positive word in American English. In America, if you're unemployed, it's because you're a lazy, shiftless bum - and will quickly resort

"Unemployed" is never a positive word in American English. In America, if you're unemployed, it's because you're a lazy, shiftless bum - and will quickly resort to crime if your own shortcomings won't let you scam a powerful and scrupulously honest corporation. The word "unemployed" has such negative connotations here that trying to use it in an underdog narrative is dooming your story to failure.