Is re-invention the blueprint for a new career?

(CBS News) 

WONDER LAKE, Ill. - At age 59, Bill Mielke wonders when he'll find another job. "I've been unemployed for over one year," he tells CBS News senior business correspondent Anthony Mason.

Just down the road in Crystal Lake, 49-year-old Ed Tonkin knows how that feels.

"The company I was working for was closing its doors," Tonkin says.

Both men were construction supervisors when they became statistics of the Great Recession. But now, they're taking different paths to get back to work.

"It was pretty obvious right away that I wasn't going to be able to keep doing what I had been doing," Tonkin says.

You might think that there'd be a market for someone like Mielke, who has 40 years of practical experience. "There should be," Mielke says. "But I haven't found it yet."

In fact, four out of every 10 unemployed Americans - nearly 6 million people - have been out of work for six months or more.

The challenge for government and business is getting them back into the workforce.

"We really could see people who maybe never get pulled back in," said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

"Or it takes a very, very long time before they can get a job that comes close to matching what they lost in the Great Recession."

In Wonder Lake, Bill Mielke's solution was to start an Internet business. An avid equestrian, he's selling the steel riding bits used in the horse's mouth.

But, Mielke says, "It's still not generating a significant income at this point in time." His house is now in foreclosure and he just withdrew his last $6,000 in savings.

Mielke is trying to stay upbeat. "I see the light at the end of the tunnel. It could be the end of the tunnel. Or it could be the freight train coming at me."

In Crystal Lake, Tonkin is taking a different approach. He says he wasn't a good student when he first went to school. But now? "I'm doing real good. I have a 4.0."

Tonkin enrolled at McHenry County College. He's now among nearly 400,000 people around the country studying under a government program designed to help laid off workers - part of the Workforce Investment Act.

"This filled in the gaps," Tonkin says. "A lot of the things I didn't know."

He says it's made a difference. "I feel a lot more confident. There's a lot more positions that I'd be willing to apply for that I wouldn't have before I took the course."

Through a classmate, Tonkin's found a job. He gets up before 4 a.m. to make the hour-long trip to Chicago where he supervises a construction site. When work's done, he heads straight back to school - until 10 p.m. "It's brutal," he says.

But Tonkin is fortunate. Only about half of those in the government's dislocated workers program find jobs. Often, those new jobs pay significantly less than their previous ones.

Tonkin's salary has taken a hit - from $95,000 to $65,000. He's making less, but he's happy to have the job.

This Saturday, Tonkin will graduate with his associate's degree in Construction Management.

[WIAWorks]

In McHenry County where this story takes place, the Entered Employment rate for those who participate in WIA funded training is 83% not 50% as the story indicated. The man who participated in WIA funded training was able to gain an Associates Degree and return to work in a very tough economy and to an industry that was hit hard by the recession. This is a great example of how important WIA programs are in getting dislocated workers trained and re-employed. WIA Works!

[mrsworm2004]

Although I feel sorry for anyone that loses their job, it is hard to here stories like this were someone was making 95,000 a year and had to take a cut in pay to 65,000 and get a free college degree. Try making 16.00 per hour and then get a parttime job making minimum wage so my daughter could go to college because FASFA said I made too much money to qualify for any grants. The business I was working for went out of business and I did not qualify for unemployment because I was working a parttime job. So now I work 2 jobs making minimum wage trying to pay my bills. I am not alone, there are plenty more people in situation that I am in. I wish I had an opportunity making 65,000 per year.

[skeezix06]

The down side that no one wants to look at.

The debt incurred and the possibility that education or not, they may not be able to find a job in the area they're training for, not because they aren't smart enough but because the area they live in might not have enough jobs available for all those who graduated.