thats sad, but im not really surprised it seems like PIs all over the us already are on razor thin budgets to begin with. i think these have become more competitive too, when i was trying to apply to these types of jobs last decade , they wanted people with alot of experience up front that you couldnt get at uni's because those labs are always packed.

one program, CLS9(clinical lab) i was look at got more competitive over the years, as people realized that choosing another grad program wasn't going to amount to better jobs, as CLS was a cheap program with a high income(100k+ starting at least in the west) if you can even get into the program. they have an abridged program for MLT, but that usually doesnt help.