I completed the portion for job related expenses, I ended up with over $1700. The program stated I get a standard deduction. Why did this not change my return amount

As an employee, you used Form 2106 Unreimbursed Employee Expenses to claim your expenses. 

The amounts claimed on Form 2106 are then reported as part of Schedule A, Itemized Deductions.  Furthermore, the 2106 amount is limited by 2% of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) before being included on Schedule A.  This makes it even tougher to get a tax benefit from claiming unreimbursed employee expenses if you are not already using itemized deductions. 

You can use the following steps to compare the results of what your itemized deduction amount would be versus your standard deduction:

• On the top row of the TurboTax online screen, click on Search (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax locate the search box in the upper right corner)

• This opens a box where you can type in “itemized deductions, choosing” (be sure to enter exactly as shown here) and click the magnifying glass (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax, click Find)

• The search results will give you an option to “Jump to itemized deductions, choosing”

• Click on the blue “Jump to itemized deductions, choosing” link

Also, take a look at the following TurboTax articles.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/4800344

https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/3302313