Due to my financial situation, I took the last 3 years to try and earn some money before going into a PhD program so I would say reaching out to your government officials for temporary or volunteer employment may not be a bad idea. My volunteer position lead me to a full-time job offer after only 2 months.
I heard from PoI’s that my experience in legislative politics strengthened my application and I had the opportunity to earn money, learn more about applied politics, and be exposed to numerous research opportunities.
This may be more relevant for US based folks, but I am sure that other country’s legislatures face similar problems of too much work, not enough staff, and an extremely high turnover rate.