I had a couple part-time jobs during my desperate last year where both employers basically said they did not need me in the job interview.
One was an applied behavior analysis role at a charity. I was told I was hired because I had autism myself. The job interviewer and later my supervisor said she had no clients for me to work with, but expected to once the school year started. HR told me I would get 8-40 hours of work per week. I actually got 0 for several months after paid training. I did have physical restrictions, but another able-bodied coworker waited 5 months for a client. It did not pick up after the school year, most likely because they lost their Medicaid funding and were private pay. I was given the offer to transfer to another location 40 miles away for a client and rejected this. They had me on a zero hour schedule for several months and then wrote me up for not doing update emails and turning in my (0 hour) timesheets.
Another one was in insurance. In the interviewer, my boss said he did not need a full-time person and maybe not even a part-time person. He said if it didn't work out we would go our separate ways. Another person was hired and started the day after me. He wanted me to make lists of people I knew and get my dad's (former insurance agent) old files. The job environment was actively toxic and my boss would pit people against eachother and insult behind their backs. I was written up 3 times at this job for small or fabricated things and put on unpaid suspensions. My boss underpaid me at my last check and I only got my full pay after 6 months.
I ended up quitting both these jobs after getting written up, but I do not know why people would hire if they say they have no need. Or why they would not just lay me off outright considering I was ineligible for UI. I want to know what I can do in the future to avoid getting into these situations.