More executives, managers finding way back into employment

Pieter Droog isn't sure the numbers mean anything at all, and he's certainly not willing to jump and declare that he's spotted a trend.

But Droog, who manages the Reno office of a program that supports jobless white-collar workers who are in the search for new employment, says more of them have been finding jobs in the past couple of months.

The number of folks signing up to begin the free ProNet program, meanwhile, has started to decline, and staffers of the nonprofit program say it appears that fewer of the new participants have recently lost a job.

Instead, the new participants increasingly represent managers and executives who have been out of work for many months and are growing increasingly worried about their ability to land new employment.

Some numbers: Through its last fiscal year (which ended on June 30), an average of 13.75 ProNet members a month landed a new job.

But in July, the number of newly employed ProNet members rose to 17 and then it climbed even more sharply to 24 in August.

The number of new participants, which had been averaging a little more than 20 a month in the last fiscal year, dropped to 13 in July and 14 in August.

At the most recent count, ProNet's membership rolls included 141 folks looking for work, although 38 of them were listed as "inactive" because they've taken temporary positions or left the state in search of employment.

Of the number of active jobseekers, about a quarter have been unemployed for 15 to 26 months. On average, ProNet members move into jobs within about six months.

The number of long-term unemployed members has been increasing in recent weeks, says Tina Machado, a caseworker for ProNet.

That's because a growing number of executives who thought that they could find a new job on their own now are turning to ProNet after months of unsuccessful searching.

ProNet helps jobseekers in executive, managerial and high-level technical positions identify potential employers, sharpen their resumes, polish their interviewing skills and build their management abilities.

Most of the work of operating ProNet is handled by its volunteer members who, after all, have plenty of experience in running things. ProNet, a division of JOIN Inc., is funded by Nevadaworks, which distributes federal funds to assist dislocated workers.

Machado says managerial jobseekers across a wide spectrum of business sectors in northern Nevada have found better prospects in recent months.

Some of the successful jobseekers, she says, have thought about how their skills might be transferred into a new industry sector.

"Most people have been staying in their field," she says. "But more people have been look at the transferables."

Droog says ProNet members who have landed jobs recently may be acting as evangelists for the program in their new companies, encouraging their new employers to look to ProNet to fill other vacancies.

Whatever the reason, Machado says the group's leaders are tooting the horn more often at the group's Monday meeting to recognize successful searchers.

Last week alone, the horn sounded five times.