While it is more likely that your job problems are caused by something you aren't aware of or aren't forthcoming about (like your previous network admin job being little more than first tier tech support), if the job market is really that bad then you really have to move. There should be hundreds of companies hiring in your region unless you live in some rural town in Kentucky. If there are really just a few companies hiring for IT positions, then this is not the best place to live as an IT professional.
I was living in a small semi-rural college town when the first company I worked for as a programmer when bankrupt in 2008. I tried for two years (starting before the company went under) trying to find work in the same area with no luck. Not a single phone interview even. So I finally gave up and moved to the more heavily populated suburbs outside the largest city in my region. I didn't have to move to an area with high rents, just a place where I could have an hour or so commute to the city.
After moving I found a job in three weeks. This was after two years of no luck in my rural town.
My 'network admin' job was the sole IT person for a charter school with several hundred people. I did the job of a director of technology, a network admin, and a support person all in one. Maybe you should stop being condescending?
My region (Northwestern PA) has had a handful of job openings at any time and a population of 908,367 people. Some of those jobs I really don't have the skills for such as requiring experience in SAP/SME, Sharepoint, Webfocus, SAS, etc which basically require that you've had a job working with those technologies to get them. I could lie, but frankly while I know what those technologies are, I certainly couldn't answer questions about them. Some I couldn't get right now because they have a hard requirement of a Bachelors degree. What is left I often have been applying for, degree be damned.
I could move to Pittsburgh or Philly except I really cannot afford to move. I've been living on ~$500/month for four years. I have no funds. My relatives who have money aren't giving me money. I cannot get a loan as I defaulted on all my debt when unemployment ended and I simply couldn't pay them anymore. I simply have no way to move. I couldn't live there a day, let alone a month. I've talked to a few companies in Pittsburgh offering jobs and they won't give me an interview until I move where they are. They most certainly don't have any desire to help me.
There are far more than a half dozen cities with a large number of IT jobs. Any city with a population of at least 300k is going to have a lot of IT jobs, and there are over 50 of them in the US. Any of the 10 cities with at least a million population is also going to have a thriving IT job market in its suburbs.
The fact that you said you are more than 100 miles away from a decent IT job market either means you are restricting yourself to San Fransisco, Seattle, etc. or you really do live in the middle of nowhere. You don't need to restrict yourself to the major IT hubs in the US. You could move to Raleigh NC, Nashville TN, Salt Lake City UT, San Antonia TX, Indianapolis IN, or whatever major city is closest to you and find plenty of companies that are hiring in IT.
I live just outside of Erie PA to be bluntly specific. Nearby are Cleveland, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh all roughly 100 miles away. But even those cities only have 3-5 times the jobs of my own region. I wouldn't call that 'thriving' and Pittsburgh and Cleveland are both over 300k. The bulk of IT workers are tied up in places like Seattle, So Cal, and Austin. Those places truly have an 'IT industry' like it tends to be thought of.