off toy company executive Paul Nawrocki hit the streets of Manhattan wearing a sandwich board and handing out his resume, he became the face of the recession. At the end of 2008, with the giants of Wall Street collapsing and bank accounts dwindling, this lone, mustachioed job hunter with the sign proclaiming he was “almost homeless” seemed like a mirror of a slumping nation's fears and troubles. Nawrocki appeared on CNN and was shadowed by South American photojournalists. In a handful of weeks, he gave more than 100 interviews in TV studios and on the street. Having the eyes of the world on him didn't land the then-59-year-old any viable job interviews. His wife was sick, and keeping his health care was a struggle. Last month, after collecting 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, Nawrocki finally found a job. “We're still not out of the woods,” he says now. He has two mortgages on his home 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Manhattan. Nawrocki and his wife declared bankruptcy last year. They got government vouchers to purchase groceries. They went to food banks. They took gifts from family. In the end, his path back to work wasn't through his television appearances, but through old-fashioned networking. He went to a toy-industry fair, and a friend introduced him to the man who would become his boss.
