Even though there aren't a lot of advertised positions in your city right now, there are still jobs that are being filled. Writers call this the "hidden job market" and you'll need to be in the networking pipeline to reach these.
Sometimes you can change your circumstances, and sometimes there is nothing you can do beyond recognizing the potential effects these may have on your job search.
Failure is a part of succeeding, and if you are regularly shooting down your ideas because you are worried that they may fail, you are only costing yourself wins.
Optimism came easily and naturally to some of those successful job seekers, but others chose to cultivate it because being negative, they realized, was an indulgence they simply could not afford.