Real estate moguls going to work at IHOP, Dairy Queen and Denny's

What did I hear about all those great jobs that have been created, oh nevermind...


From Arizona:

Sean Kennedy and his wife, Katy, worked for about a year at Tucson-based First Magnus Financial Corp. before the company laid off most of its employees Aug. 16.

Now Katy Kennedy is a La-Z-Boy salesperson, and Sean Kennedy is working odd jobs including occasional shifts at his family's Dairy Queen while he looks for more permanent employment.

The couple earned about $70,000 combined at mortgage lender First Magnus but are now making do with significantly less and have dipped into savings to help make ends meet.

"There are jobs out there, but the problem is finding a job that is comparable to what you were making," said Sean Kennedy, 25.



St Petersburg:

Mark Kowalick always knew that if he didn’t like where he was working, he could drive down the street near his New Port Richey neighborhood and find another job. At 39, he has been pouring concrete about half his life. It’s what he does.

Or used to do. He has been laid off for nearly a year, a victim of the housing slump. And there’s nothing down the street anymore.

It’s so bad, Kowalick said, that pawn shops have stopped buying the tools contractors use because they’re overstocked, and some of his friends have been forced to sell their most prized possession: their pickup trucks.

‘Nobody talks about what’s happening to us,’ he said. ‘It’s unbelievable that I’m reduced to this. I used to own my own concrete business.’

On Wednesday, Kowalick applied for a job that is housing-related, sort of, as a cook at a local International House of Pancakes.

This is the first time since I was 12 that I haven’t worked,’ he said. ‘Five years ago I could quit this morning and have job this afternoon. Now I don’t even know anybody who’s pouring concrete.



Sac Bee:

The downturn in the housing market -- with job losses in the industry really kicking in during 2007 -- is starting to hit the region's breadwinners.

"Job growth has slowed down quite a bit in the first months of 2007," said Howard Roth, chief economist at the California Department of Finance. "Construction, home sales -- it's all going down." Which is not news to Rachel Brandon of Sacramento.

She shook an emphatic "no" when asked Tuesday if she is better off than she was in 2005. "My career for the past 10 years was in the mortgage industry," said Brandon, who is 39. "I have a license to do loans. Two years ago I was making lots of money -- I was making deals in my pajamas from home.

Now I'm waiting tables at Denny's for $8 an hour." Still, she's optimistic. "I really like my job at Denny's," she said. "I'm learning quite a bit, and someday I'd like to have my own cafe. But, two years ago if you asked me if I'd be working for $8 an hour today, I'd have said 'God, no way.'"