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"Like the Lamberts, families from coast to coast are dealing with the aftershocks of layoffs. Nine months into 2001, 1.2 million Americans had lost their jobs \u2014 up 145 percent from the same period in the previous year. After September 11, those numbers increased dramatically. But there is some good news to report. Getting a pink slip hardly carries the stigma it once did. Though the search can be daunting, new positions are opening up; on average, people spend just three to four months finding a new job. And job seekers are discovering new ways to zero in on opportunities, from pink-slip parties to job fairs. We spoke with families from three of the hardest-hit industries \u2014 travel, high tech, and retail \u2014 about how they&amp;#039;ve adjusted and what they&amp;#039;re doing to move on. All are getting smarter about their spending: for example, painting the house themselves instead of hiring someone to do the job or playing board games on Saturday nights rather than eating out. Some who&amp;#039;ve lost their jobs are excited about making a fresh start. Best of all, these family members realize that they&amp;#039;ve weathered a storm together \u2014 and that their bonds are stronger than ever.  From Pilot to Mr. Mom Brad and Sheri Lambert were living the American dream. They owned a big house in Malvern, Pennsylvania \u2014 a Philadelphia suburb \u2014 and their three children, ages seven, six, and three, were happy and healthy. A pilot for 15 years, Brad, 38, had worked his way up to a first officer&amp;#039;s position at US Airways. Sheri, 35, managed the travel sector for Taylor Nelson Sofres, a market-research firm.   Then came September 11. Brad was supposed to fly that day, but he rearranged his schedule at the last minute to stay home and watch the kids while Sheri was away on business. At 6:10 a.m., she had just boarded a plane, about to fly home from Los Angeles, when her husband reached her on her cell phone and informed her of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. &amp;quot;Tell the crew what&amp;#039;s going on and get off the plane,&amp;quot; Brad told her. Sheri relayed the news to a flight attendant, who ushered Sheri into the cockpit. &amp;quot;I told the pilot that my husband thought it was a hijacked passenger plane that hit the World Trade Center. Then I watched his face turn white.&amp;quot;  Shortly after, all airplanes were grounded, and Sheri couldn&amp;#039;t make it home for days. During that time, Brad heard rumblings of bad news at his airline. The pilots&amp;#039; union was talking about mass layoffs, and soon the cutbacks were confirmed. Brad was furloughed \u2014 he was told that he would have to turn in his ID and uniform on December 2. &amp;quot;Mostly I feel disheartened that the job I love is gone,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;Flying is what I&amp;#039;ve always wanted to do, but with thousands of pilots out of work, I&amp;#039;m afraid I may never fly a jet again.&amp;quot;  With the airline industry downsizing, Sheri&amp;#039;s job looked shaky, too. Many of her clients, which included Delta Air Lines, UPS and major hotel chains, let her know that they had to trim their research budgets. Suddenly there wasn&amp;#039;t a whole lot of work to be done. &amp;quot;One day we were moving up our ladders,&amp;quot; she says, &amp;quot;then the next, we were moving in an entirely different direction. I told my boss that I&amp;#039;d gladly change my focus \u2014 just please don&amp;#039;t let me go.&amp;quot;  Since then, Sheri has turned her energy toward working with clients in the automotive industry. And she&amp;#039;s heard that some of the airlines are starting to advertise again and will be needing her services. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m feeling more secure,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;People are trying to get on with their lives.&amp;quot;   With only one income, the Lamberts have let their baby-sitter go and put their plans for buying a new house on hold. But so far \u2014 thanks to their cautious spending over the years \u2014 they haven&amp;#039;t had to make drastic budget cuts. Still, Sheri is uneasy about her new role as breadwinner. &amp;quot;For the first time in my career, I am making all the money. I&amp;#039;ve always worked because I wanted to, but now all of the responsibility falls on me, and I don&amp;#039;t like how it feels,&amp;quot; she says.   &amp;quot;The hardest thing I&amp;#039;ve had to come to grips with is the fact that I have a husband who has to start over. We all know Brad will find something else to do \u2014 and he&amp;#039;ll be great at it. But what is it going to be? And when will he find it?&amp;quot;  Brad is currently pursuing new ventures. He sent away for law-school applications, and he&amp;#039;s also thinking about opening a restaurant. &amp;quot;I feel a lot of anticipation about what I&amp;#039;m going to do next,&amp;quot; says Brad, who is relying on Sheri to be there for him when he needs to talk things over. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d say the most important thing a spouse can do is listen and be totally supportive.&amp;quot; In the meantime, Brad is content playing Mr. Mom and spending more time with their children. &amp;quot;We all try to make light of it,&amp;quot; Sheri says. &amp;quot;Brad&amp;#039;s a good-looking guy, and my friends tease me that all the stay-at-home moms want to swap recipes with him.&amp;quot;  For now, the Lamberts are treating each day like a new challenge. &amp;quot;You may think you have the world at your fingertips,&amp;quot; Sheri reflects, &amp;quot;but there&amp;#039;s only so much you can control.&amp;quot;  A Single Mom&amp;#039;s Relentless Search When Andrea Papa, a single mother in her 40s from Riverdale, New York, got the word last January, her first response was denial. After learning from the CEO of her nonprofit Internet firm that she and about 10 others would be out of a job in two weeks, Andrea went home early, lugging her laptop and a few files with her. She dove right back into work, as if nothing had changed. &amp;quot;I wasn&amp;#039;t totally &amp;#039;there,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Andrea recalls, &amp;quot;but the work was therapeutic.&amp;quot;  Soon, though, her emotions took over. &amp;quot;I got angry, then worried, then angry again. Being a single parent, my biggest fear was of having no money. My income was about to be eliminated, and I was totally unprepared.&amp;quot; Andrea hadn&amp;#039;t seen the job cuts coming. Although she had noticed that some Internet stocks were slipping, she says, &amp;quot;I thought we were different. And I felt like I was on the leading edge.&amp;quot; Falling from such a high made Andrea&amp;#039;s loss even harder to accept.  On the first Sunday night after her last day, Andrea realized she didn&amp;#039;t have to set her alarm for her morning routine. Worse, she and her eight-year-old son, Zachary, had only a month&amp;#039;s severance to live on. &amp;quot;I thought, I have no place to go tomorrow. I don&amp;#039;t have a job and I don&amp;#039;t know when I&amp;#039;ll get another paycheck,&amp;quot; Andrea says. &amp;quot;That was scary.&amp;quot;  Andrea&amp;#039;s number one concern was how to keep from disrupting Zachary&amp;#039;s life. Would he have to skip summer camp? Could she keep paying his school tuition? Would they be able to take a spring-break vacation? Andrea immediately cut their budget. She reduced their cable service and let the baby-sitter go. She curbed all impulse buys. And she never went to the grocery store without a list. If necessary, she could dip into her savings to stay afloat. But then what?   When Andrea told Zachary that she was searching for a new job and they might have to move, he had no response. &amp;quot;I worried that I had said too much,&amp;quot; she says. A month later, Zachary&amp;#039;s teacher told Andrea that her son was having trouble concentrating in class. He confessed that he was afraid they would run out of money and have to find a new place to live, and that he might have to say good-bye to his friends.  With Zachary&amp;#039;s worries in mind, Andrea focused on job prospects close to home. She met recruiters at a pink-slip party in Manhattan; job seekers, including her, wore Day-Glo pink bracelets, while the recruiters donned bright green bands. But it was hard for her to mingle with 23-year-olds who didn&amp;#039;t have the pressures of school expenses, and summer-camp fees. At home, Andrea appreciated calls from concerned friends, but was hurt when others avoided her. &amp;quot;It was uncomfortable for some people. With the weak economy, they looked at me and wondered, Am I going to end up like that? They thought it was catching.&amp;quot;  Andrea called friends and friends of friends for job leads, but ultimately she learned of an opening through an ad posted on Monster.com. In April, she was hired as director of marketing for RSoft, a simulation-software company 45 minutes from where she lives. &amp;quot;I was happy, relieved, and excited,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;It felt like coming home again.&amp;quot;  Before the layoff, Andrea had never put much stock in the idea of saving for a rainy day, but things have changed for the better. &amp;quot;These days, I&amp;#039;m frugal, and all my purchases are planned,&amp;quot; Andrea says. &amp;quot;I once said to Zachary, &amp;#039;Every penny counts.&amp;#039; Now, when he finds a penny, he gives it to me.&amp;quot; As for her success at landing a new job, &amp;quot;You need to keep telling yourself that there are opportunities out there,&amp;quot; she explains. &amp;quot;Keep believing in yourself, and there&amp;#039;s a light at the end of the tunnel.&amp;quot;  Jobs Lost...and Found For seven years, Connie Harmon, 39, worked the Christmas Eve shift at a large discount chain, while her husband and kids kept the turkey warm at their Louisville, Ohio, home. Not that she was complaining. A dedicated employee, Connie was a loss-control manager, responsible for preventing shoplifting in the store. More than once she had chased a suspect through a parking lot. &amp;quot;I really liked the job,&amp;quot; she says.  Christmas Eve 2000 started out like all the others. But then Connie heard a rumor that was spreading through the store: An anonymous manager had posted a warning in an Internet chatroom that all of the store&amp;#039;s loss-control management positions were being eliminated. Connie was let go the day after Christmas, and she was asked to wait outside in the parking lot for her husband to pick her up. &amp;quot;It was so painful,&amp;quot; says Connie. &amp;quot;I felt like I had done something wrong.&amp;quot; Within hours, anxiety set in. Fortunately, Connie and her husband, Jim, didn&amp;#039;t have credit card debt or car payments; but with no savings, they were going to have to stretch the salary Jim earned as a foreman at a trailer-manufacturing company.  &amp;quot;There were no corners to cut,&amp;quot; Connie recalls. &amp;quot;We didn&amp;#039;t have cable TV or cell phones. We just tried to be extra frugal.&amp;quot; The family stuck to no-name brands and clipped coupons, and switched from pork chops to hot dogs for dinner. &amp;quot;I cried when the gas bill came,&amp;quot; Connie remembers. &amp;quot;It was $299, so we started keeping the heat at 65 degrees day and night.&amp;quot; The Harmon children made sacrifices, too. Nineteen-year-old Nick postponed his college plans to work as a waiter in a pizza shop and save money for his education. Alisha, 13, secretly cut a deal with school administrators to set up chairs in the cafeteria before class in exchange for free lunches. &amp;quot;When she told me about it, I felt awful,&amp;quot; Connie recalls. &amp;quot;But I also couldn&amp;#039;t help feeling proud of her.&amp;quot; Then, a month later, the Harmons got hit with more bad news: Jim was laid off. &amp;quot;I thought we were going to lose everything,&amp;quot; Connie says. &amp;quot;I started picturing our house up for sale and selling off all our antiques to the highest bidder.&amp;quot; By March, the Harmons had fallen nearly $800 behind on mortgage payments. Bills piled up, and the bank phoned in threats. One Sunday, the Harmons&amp;#039; parish took up a collection on their behalf. Although thankful for the money, the Harmons didn&amp;#039;t like being seen as a charity case. &amp;quot;I felt so low,&amp;quot; Connie says, &amp;quot;like we couldn&amp;#039;t take care of our family.&amp;quot; Even in the midst of all this, Connie tried to keep her family&amp;#039;s spirits high. &amp;quot;We played a lot of Scrabble, we painted the house, we even cleaned out the basement together,&amp;quot; she reports. &amp;quot;We found support in one another.&amp;quot; By April, after working at a few odd jobs, Connie was hired as a salesperson at a children&amp;#039;s clothing store. Jim found work with another trailer-manufacturing company, and for a while, things almost seemed to be back to normal. But in July, the company downsized, and Jim lost his job again.  Though the Harmons are still feeling the financial pinch, things are looking up now. First came the tax-refund check in September. &amp;quot;That was a godsend,&amp;quot; Jim says. &amp;quot;We were able to catch up and keep our heads above water.&amp;quot; Then Jim&amp;#039;s old firm called him back to work at an hourly position as a welder. He&amp;#039;s also making plans to finish his bachelor&amp;#039;s degree through an accelerated program at a local college. And Connie just landed a second job, as assistant district manager at a discount chain.   Despite the troubles the layoffs brought them, Connie believes her relationship with her husband is stronger than ever. &amp;quot;They say you&amp;#039;re never given more than you can handle,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;All you have to do is stick to it, stay together, and move ahead.&amp;quot; \u2014With reporting by Laura D&amp;#039;Angelo  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/career/advice/a1545/life-after-layoffs-jan02/>