After looking for work for nine months, Richard Wilcox took to the street last December. The laid-off insurance-company manager, then 62 years old, stood along a busy Boston commuter route in frigid weather holding a sign that read: "I NEED A JOB . . . 36 YRS EXPER; INSUR/MNGMNT." By early March, when the story of Mr. Wilcox's job search ran, he had sent out about 700 resumes with no success.

In May his luck turned. As a result of the article, Mr. Wilcox received a call from Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. in Chicago, which offered him a newly created position involving employee benefits and property and casualty-risk management. Mr. Wilcox now earns about $70,000 a year, 10% more than what he was earning prior to his layoff early last year. He is working out of his home in Easton, Mass.

"I'm glad to be back in the land of the working," says Mr. Wilcox, who had exhausted his savings and unemployment benefits. The thought of having to spend another winter standing out in the freezing cold was "a little bit daunting," he says. "This winter I won't even have to drive to work in the cold."

Bandit Gangwere

For years, Bandit Gangwere worked as a well-paid high-tech temp. Then the tech bubble broke and he spent two years looking for a software-programming job. When his odyssey was described in an April 2003 story, he had just started working as a contract employee for Boeing Co., commuting from his home in Felton, Calif., to Albuquerque, N.M.

Today Mr. Gangwere, 46, thinks he has a good shot at a permanent job at Boeing, the kind of regular employment he once shunned. Over the summer, he sold his house south of Silicon Valley, and bought a bigger home in the rural community of Sandia Park, about 20 miles from Albuquerque. That reunited him with his wife and son, and allowed the family to pay off more than $30,000 in debt. "At least I'm starting from zero, not negative," he says.

Mr. Gangwere still has one worry: health insurance. His old California plan doesn't cover doctors and hospitals in New Mexico. For the moment, he's continuing to pay for that plan, hoping that he soon lands a job at Boeing that provides him with insurance benefits.

Charles Kurilko

Charles Kurilko was an unemployed steelworker in fragile health when the Journal wrote about his quest for affordable health insurance in May. His employer of 37 years, LTV Corp., had been restructured along with the rest of the steel industry and his health benefits were a casualty. His predicament was whether to dip into his savings to pay the $2,864 monthly tab for his coverage.

In August Mr. Kurilko obtained an Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield policy, covering 80% of his hospital stays, for which he pays $1,590 a month to cover himself and his wife. Mr. Kurilko recently spent three days in the hospital because he couldn't sleep lying down and couldn't breathe well when standing.

"The premium is a big chunk. But I am doing well," he says. Mr. Kurilko will get some of that money back in the form of a tax break for workers who lost their jobs due to overseas competition. He also got an unexpected bonus as a result of the article. Readers sent him a total of about $2,000. "I'm amazed at the generosity of people across the country," he says.

Wanda Whitson

Wanda Whitson, 47, lost her job as a $65,000-per-year public-relations manager in December 2001 and spent months working as a part-time salesperson at a Boston-area Crate & Barrel retail store to help make ends meet. She was featured in a late-May article about how the slow economic recovery is leaving so many workers jobless.

In July, she found a full-time position with a small marketing company in a Boston suburb. Ms. Whitson had turned down an offer from the company last year, hoping to find a job with a bigger company that paid more. But with her health-care benefits close to expiring and her savings dwindling to nothing, she asked the company if a position was still available. Ms. Whitson is earning 10% less than she made in her public-relations job and says she's still looking for a more-fulfilling job. While she's going out a bit more, she's keeping a tight lid on her spending as she tries to rebuild her savings.

"It is going to take a long time to really get back to a comfortable place," she says.

Circuit City's Salespeople

Earlier this year, Circuit City Stores Inc. laid off 3,900 highly paid commissioned salespeople, replacing many with lower-paid employees. A June article described how companies are using this tactic to keep their costs down.

Within days of being dismissed, Robert Wood found a salesman's job at a home-improvement store. These days, he is still hoping to be earning about 70% of his old pay by the end of the year. He is considering studying for a real-estate-broker's license. "I said when I took this job that I would give it a year and see what it brings," he says.

Mark Combs, another laid-off Circuit City salesman, initially fared better than many of his colleagues. Within weeks he found a sales job at CompUSA Inc. His sales commissions, amounting to $15 to $17 an hour, allowed him to complete the purchase of a new home.

But CompUSA has since changed its compensation system and Mr. Combs recently has been making closer to $13 an hour. He plans to take a second job selling insurance policies to employers part time. "I appreciate everything CompUSA has done for me," he says. "But it's just not working out for me financially."

Elaine Johnson

As it was preparing the sale of its assets to Bank One Corp. in July 2002, Polaroid Corp. sent a letter to 180 disabled employees notifying them that they had been fired and their health, life and dental insurance were being terminated. As health-insurance costs and the number of disabled employees climb, more companies are shedding them in an effort to cut costs.

The former employees, profiled in a July article, continue to struggle to make ends meet. Elaine Johnson, 59, of Attleboro, Mass., has remortgaged her home for a second time in two years to help pay for her medical bills and repairs on her house. Her monthly income of $2,000 in social security and disability payments covers her monthly house payment of $1,100 and the $477 she pays each month for health and prescription-drug insurance. But, Ms. Johnson says, she barely has enough left over to feed herself and pay for utilities. "My existence is what they call subsistence," she says.

A discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of the discharged employees is pending in U.S. District Court in Boston. A Polaroid spokesman declined comment on the suit.

The Karenbauer Brothers

Brothers Brad and Jim Karenbauer and their cousin Danny Mottern all once worked at a now-closed Trinity Industries Inc. plant making rail-car parts. Part of a generation of well-paid manual laborers, they faced the prospect of never working again with their hands.

But recently, Brad Karenbauer received a telephone call about a job. David Jardini, chief operating officer of C/G Electrodes, LLC., was restarting a graphite-electrodes plant and was looking for people who liked to work around machines and with their hands, and had read about the family in a July article. "They sounded just like the guys we were looking for," says Mr. Giardini, who shipped the first electrodes to steel minimills in late August.

Brad and Jim Karenbauer drove the two hours to the plant, located in St. Marys, Pa., and were offered jobs. Jim, who is 60, decided not to take it, because he didn't want to commute that distance. He's going to stay at the Wal-Mart Supercenter, where he stocks shelves in the electronics department. Recently, he received a raise and is now earning $6.71 an hour, up from $6.25.

Brad, though, is taking the job. As a $26,000-a-year junior technician, the 40-year-old Mr. Karenbauer will be making close to what he made at Trinity, with the chance to move up, and more than he was making doing landscaping. The company offers benefits and a 10% bonus after the first year. "I could hardly pass it up," he says.