How does the average person live on Houston wages?

I moved to Houston in autumn 2018 and moved away Thanksgiving 2019. I moved there from California to go to a hospital in the TMC. I left my apartment and job back in Los Angeles to do so.

I rented an overpriced apartment in Houston while I looked for work and could just not find anything. ANYTHING. I could not even get call backs. Plus, the pay was absolutely terrible for the jobs available. Like close to the federal minimum wage or only a couple bucks higher.

I was running out of money by the end of my lease and had to take a job stocking shelves at Walmart second shift for $11/hour. I decided to bail out of town after a few months of that. My job hunt was going nowhere.

Yes, I have an Art History degree but never had as much trouble finding work until I went to Houston. I think I was also used to/spoiled by the higher wages in California so it was a huge shock to see rent is really not that much cheaper than LA but wages are only like 50% of what they are there.

I ultimately had to move back in to my mom’s house in Iowa after my whole unfortunate Houston saga (that was a mistake in itself). The thing is I LOVE Houston but I could just not seem to make things work there for me. I vastly prefer it to Los Angeles in basically every way aside from the fact the labor market is skewed against me there.