Happy Birthday, JZ!
Anne, IME the range is anywhere from a day to 6 weeks, with a week to a month being more typical.
I'm planning to apply for 2-3 jobs this week myself. I've found one that looks like a perfect fit for my abilities (special events manager for a midsized nonprofit), and the pay is right too, but it's downtown and might involve more evening and weekend work than I'd really want, just because that's the nature of the special events beast. Also an admin specialist position through UW, but not on campus, so I'd have to carpool with DH to campus, then hop on the Health Sciences shuttle, which would be a pain, but OTOH, bus=reading time! And it's a temporary position, just through Feb., which is good and bad. The bad is obvious--I'd be searching again in 6 months. The good is I wouldn't have the annoying commute forever, and if I ended up deciding the whole going back to work thing was a terrible mistake, I'd have an easy out. And finally there's a small business owner VERY local to me--we're talking a 10-minute commute--who wants a sort of combo marketing/PR/admin person. It'd be Tues.-Sat. to start with, with eventual potential to choose my own hours within reason, and did I mention the 10-minute commute? But I wonder how much he's willing to pay.
Anyway, I should probably actually apply for the jobs before I weigh all the pros and cons, huh? Later today I may ask for someone to look at my cover letters and resume.
Does the following sound like a good way to handle in cover letters the fact I've been freelancing the past year or so? "I left my position at UW in 2004 upon the birth of my child and have been a freelance writer since then. Now I am looking for an opportunity to return to full-time work." (Or, if it's a part-time position, I'd say something like "a part-time position.") In a way it's none of their business, and feels a little personal to mention. But I want to make sure it's clear I left my UW job of my own volition, and also to spin going back to work as if it were my plan all along.