Unemployed, underemployed execs still feeling 2008 crisis

CHICAGO – About 30 years ago, Lise Rosengard was persuaded by family and friends to set aside her passion for art and go for a secure job with good earning potential.

She went to work in banking and worked her way up to vice president at one of the world's most prominent financial institutions, Societe Generale. Then came the financial crisis of 2008, and she found herself out of work along with hundreds of thousands of other people.

The depth of the job destruction hit her one day in 2009 as she rode the train downtown in Manhattan to Wall Street, where she hoped to get a lead for a new job. "It was 7:30 in the morning and normally the train would have been packed. But it was empty," she recalled.

At the end of the train ride, there was no job. And there has been no full-time job with benefits since.

About eight years after the financial crisis, the turmoil that began on Wall Street and then drifted into companies of all types has left the ranks of the unemployed and underemployed heavy with people who once enjoyed senior financial positions in a variety of industries. They face a sharply reduced market for the types of jobs they used to take for granted.

Rosengard stated adamantly: "Banking is not a stable position." Since the crash, she's had well-paying short-term consulting positions and poor-paying temp work, but nothing like the security she used to have.

Rosengard isn't alone. She's beginning to attend meetings of the Financial Executives Networking Group, or FENG, that are filled with people who've gone to premier MBA programs, guided companies through multimillion-dollar decisions, had titles like chief financial officer, treasurer and vice president of finance, and generally excelled at what they've done.

"You aren't getting recognized for your skills," said the speaker, Conor Cunneen. "I know it's a pain in the butt when you know you can do the job with your eyes closed, and they are going to give it to someone new at it, taking half the salary."

Nationally, many of the 718,000 financial jobs that disappeared have returned, but commercial banking is still short more than 58,000 jobs. Positions in leasing and rental equipment are down 93,200.

"Whatever the government says, the recession continues," said Matt Bud, national chairman of FENG, which holds sessions like the Chicago meetup in cities throughout the country. About 50,000 out-of-work or underemployed executives are members nationwide.

Rosengard, 58, suspects ageism is holding her and others back as they struggle to get jobs.

As Cunneen gave the group tips for their job searches, he said they should put their Twitter handle on their resumes so they "look contemporary" with social media. In addition, he suggested scouring Twitter postings from companies they would like to join, and then in interviews state that they found specific information or discussions on Twitter.