Hi and welcome IBOK.
I can only speak for myself - if things were tight I would want to get a job to help out. I did enough goofing off as an active alcoholic.
If he's actively been looking maybe he's been unlucky...
if he's not looking...we'd all like 6 months of no responsibility to get our recovery right but it rarely works out like that - I think it's reasonable to ask he step up his game.
D