How much time of unemployment after PhD in order to still be competitive in postdoc application So I uploaded my PhD thesis about a month ago. I am trying to switch academic fields at the moment, and I applied to about 20 postdocs. However I am considering the possibility I may not get in for this application cycle, which would mean roughly another year. I was wondering how long can you be unemployed without your CV becoming uncompetitive. I am just balancing whether after this cycle I should give up and go to industry or whether I should keep grinding. 

I am applying to earth sciences actually. My original affiliation is physics.
As I'm from Europe, Horizon 2020, ERC grants and other recognize starting grants as for individuals up to 3 years after PhD to be eligible for postdoc. After that the postdoc experience in academia or industry is already expected. 

For me it took personally 8 months to find appropriate job after I submitted PhD thesis - different field (computational biology). I submitted 25 CV, did 4-5 interviews and did also homework to explore different opportunities and laboratories. I had some small money to travel to conferences other sites and I had support from my previous supervisor. Thus I spoke with some heads of labs personally too.