For Hawaii resident Maryn Stevens, Washington state looked like a land of opportunity. When she discovered she could earn more in Washington than Hawaii as an early career mental health counselor, she began laying plans to find a job here.

Stevens, 26, was living with her parents in Honolulu and carrying about $50,000 in graduate school loans. She was ready to launch her next, more financially secure chapter. So one day in late April this year, she gathered her transcript, filled out a personal information form and took her first step: applying to Washington’s health department to begin seeing clients as a trainee.

A month and a half of silence went by before she started getting nervous.

Stevens had unknowingly joined a queue of thousands of applicants hoping to enter Washington’s workf

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