When I graduated, there were absolutely no jobs in machine learning and I used to get blank looks when I told people about my work. Fortunately, I was able to get a job in the systems field and worked there for many years. I was able to get back into machine learning about 8 years ago and am semi-retired now.

I'm not complaining as I was always well paid in my career. But sometimes, being too early in a field can be as bad as being too late :-)