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Mention any projects, programmes, self-learning you've participated in (inflate the importance of these somewhat) to at least break it up. Now, assuming that you've broken up the big gap into smaller gaps, write a simple and straightforward explanation about your situation at the end talking about all the gaps in general. Just write what you wrote here about the job market but more professionally. Don't overthink it, some random professor will most likely spend 2-3 minutes looking at it. If you're applying to some mid uni (I mean any uni that isn't a cutthroat uni in the US or UK) and your bachelor's GPA was like 3.2ish+ then you'll be fine. You'll just be in the middle of the batch, and depending on how many students applied that semester you'll have an alright chance at the least.
That's not how employment NDAs work. They never forbid a candidate from disclosing that they worked for a company and the general nature of their work. They just forbid the candidate from talking about specific knowledge gained at the company.
Do not use this excuse because it's an instant red flag for anyone who knows even a little about the hiring process.
Ok how about ' I was in Langley West Virginia working for the company and I can say nothing more'
I'm sure that the admission staff will take your application very seriously if you claim you were James Bonding it up for a few years.
