Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/for-ex-cons-and-laid-off-execs-alike-dim-job-hopes Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript In the next in his series on making sense of the financial news, economics correspondent Paul Solman reports on those in society -- such as executives or ex-convicts -- who are struggling to find employment. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: And next tonight, some perspective on finding work in a bad job market. It comes from some people that our economics correspondent, Paul Solman, first introduced us to in a story earlier this month. His latest report is another in his ongoing series of making sense of financial news. PAUL SOLMAN: Unemployed engineer Peter Sturdivant, convening an executive networking group meeting in suburban Chicago. It starts with a report on how much time was spent job-hunting the prior week. JOHN FRECH: I had a pretty good week last week. I had 37 hours invested in job search. PAUL SOLMAN: John Frech lost his auditing job in January, Barbara Tomczak, her human resources job in February 2008. BARBARA TOMCZAK: For the 20 hours I spent on LinkedIn, I was able to garner a phone interview out of that, and now I actually have a face-to-face interview scheduled this week. JOB-SEEKER: I had my usual good numbers, as far as hours were concerned. I had 65. PAUL SOLMAN: Laid-off executives all, mainly in manufacturing and banking, they've been out of work on average almost a year, networking like mad. We taped them for a story on the undercounting of unemployment and were impressed by how candidly they spoke about just how tough it is out there these days. JOHN FRECH: The agenda item I have is how to secure a conversation with a contact that we've been given. It's just I just can't break through. JOHN LEONE: Well, what you need to do is catch them in the parking lot as he's going home in the evening. BARBARA TOMCZAK: Yes, stalk him. That's the idea. Yes, that'll work. PAUL SOLMAN: Former I.T. executive Bharath Tolappa said he'd honed this particular craft.Exactly what is your stalking technique? BHARATH TOLAPPA: I could've tried to reach a person through as many as, you know, a dozen people. PAUL SOLMAN: A dozen people, and then how many e-mails might you have sent? BHARATH TOLAPPA: Probably four dozen e-mails. PAUL SOLMAN: Four dozen e-mails, and then how many phone messages would you have left? BHARATH TOLAPPA: Probably, you know, about 24 messages. In many of those cases, I'm still waiting. PAUL SOLMAN: How much more demoralizing can you get? Or as ex-financial executive Chris Demaio put it… CHRIS DEMAIO: No one's really interested in talking with us.