I have been made redundant three times in my career. First time was not a problem as I walked into a better job (1994-ish), second time was just before 9/11 - not good. Took around 6 months that time. Last time was 2009 - took over a year then. You have to keep trying. I found networking the best way to get a job. Anything advertised online will have 100s of applicants and you need to find a way to stand out - either through contacts putting a good word in or a bright pink CV

I think most programming/real techie jobs have now been off-shored to India or China. The only developer jobs in the UK tend to be senior roles managing those remote teams. Tech support is an option, but again first/second line is often in Bangalore or similar. The only people making real money are the top IT techies who have moved on to contracting roles earning between £400 and £800 a day in the South East of the country.

Sooo, I suggest you look at where the market is going/growing and retrain, people won't give anyone a job just because they've been looking for 2 years! CCTV is definitely a good area - video surveillance installations, remote security etc. Mobile comms is another hot area. One area I think will take off is in-car cameras: http://dashcamtalk.com/ - very popular in some developing countries such as Russia. Cheap as chips now too.

I work for a large company selling IT Storage to big enterprises (not consumer/SMB) and business is growing very fast (just think where those photos go when you upload them to Facebook...). However the market is constantly changing and you have to take a look at your skills and work hard to remain relevant. I look at what I do now and know that I need to broaden my skillset and I will be trying to do this in the coming year or so as I predict my specific skill will become the norm in my company in 2 years time and I will be less 'needed' - stay ahead of the game!!

Good luck out there!