Looking for a job: American in Lorca with carpentry & finance experience

If you are a U.S. citizen then I would say that the first thing that you would have to do would be to apply for residency and a work visa, as a non-EU citizen you need to be a legal resident to be able to stay more than 90 days and a work visa to be able to work legally.

Thank you Mags.

Yes, this I know. Being from outside the EU, I first have to get an appropriate Spanish visa and only then can I apply for residency.

I am looking for options that help me to get the appropriate visa. 

You can only get a working visa if you have an offer in writing of a job, with a contract that will cover your living maintenance requirements. Your other option would be to apply as an autonimo (self-employed) with full business plan etc.

Last possibility would be if your girlfriend is Spanish with the right paperwork you could marry and use her status to get residency - not sure if that changes your rights to work.

Your US driving licence is also not transferable to Spain so if your usefulness as an employee means you must drive you should start doing the lessons to get legal.

You could look into ' Pareja de hecho'  if your girlfriend is Spanish and you've been  together a while and can prove that you are an established couple. Its quite a bit of paperwork and takes around 6 to 12 months but would give you the right to live and work here.

Your best option in the short term is remote work for an international or US company and a digital nomad visa. 

You could be self employed and teach English online but you'd be working purely pay the autonomo fee for self employment as online English teaching isn't very well paid. 

I think really you need to speak to an immigration lawyer as overstaying as an American in Spain can get you deported and potentially banned from entering the whole Schengen zone for 3 to 5 years.