Enlarge By Eileen Blass, USA TODAY At HSBC, Greg Corkett frequently dined at nice restaurants on the company tab and traveled to London and Hong Kong. Now, he often skips lunch or orders take-out from the local deli. WHERE ARE THE JOBS? WHERE ARE THE JOBS? FORECASTS FOR REBOUND: Map shows the latest outlook for all 50 states and 384 metro areas, by job sectors. LOOKING FOR A JOB?: Try our Quick Job Search widget powered by CareerBuilder. JOB SEARCH HELP: Videos from career counselors provide advice RECOVERY WATCH RECOVERY WATCH USA TODAY/IHS Global Insight Economic Forecast: Our latest economic index forecasts stronger growth. | Video: About our new index As a chief operating officer for HSBC , one of the world's largest financial services firms, Greg Corkett worked in the rarefied echelons of banking. But when the subprime mortgage meltdown sparked a financial crisis in late 2008, Corkett lost his job overseeing the global markets division, which bought residential mortgages and handled stock, bond and foreign currency trades. Today, he toils at the low end of the housing-loan food chain as a mortgage broker in Great Neck, N.Y. His annual pay has plunged to about $95,000 from $400,000 or so. On a typical day, instead of ensuring that the purchase of a $500 million package of mortgages will be profitable, Corkett is helping a young couple decide whether they can afford that $450,000 Colonial. "It's an awful lot of work for, frankly, a small fraction of what I used to make," Corkett, 52, says. JOBS OUTLOOK: Latest data for all states, 384 metros RECOVERY WATCH: Tracking the economy; see VIDEO With the job market growing modestly again this year, Corkett is among many Americans who have taken jobs a rung or more below the ones they lost in the recession. Unlike the unemployed marketing director who's manning the cash register at Walmart or the construction worker who turned to truck driving, these workers are still in their fields, but lower on the career ladder. It may be, for example, a former chief financial officer who's now a deputy finance director. A regional sales manager turned sales representative. Or a lawyer making do as a paralegal. They represent a less visible casualty of a brutal economic downturn. Government officials lament the 14.8 million unemployed Americans and the 12 million who are working part time or grew so discouraged that they stopped looking for jobs; together, they make up the official 17% underemployment rate. Yet millions more have taken jobs that don't fully utilize their skills and experience, staffing agency officials and economists estimate. That's an entire generation of workers who have downshifted their careers. Many will never reclaim their former status or salary. "Job losses during recessions such as this one can lead to very large earnings losses that persist over 15, 20 years," says Till von Wachter, a professor of labor economics at Columbia University. A 2009 study led by von Wachter found that nearly two decades after workers lost their jobs in the early 1980s recession, their earnings were still an average 20% or so lower than those of similar employees who weren't laid off. After a decade, only 25% had regained their former pay. Losses were steeper for workers over 50. Jorge Perez, senior vice president-North America for staffing company Manpower, says about 30% of the workers his firm places are taking jobs for which they're overqualified, compared with about 10% in normal economic times. What's behind the situation There are myriad reasons for the trend. Most obvious: More of the unemployed are seeking still-scarce jobs. And those out of work six months or longer are at a disadvantage compared with those recently laid off, says John Challenger, CEO of outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas. Many on the sidelines for extended periods lose their skills, Perez says, making them less marketable. Lots of companies, meanwhile, cut management layers in the recession, sometimes incorporating higher-level duties in lower-level jobs. For many, the descent in stature is like a trip back in time, as executives who conceived big-picture strategies must once again immerse themselves in messy details. But the experience can also cultivate new skills that may propel them back to their former perches. Many employers, meanwhile, are snatching highly qualified workers at low cost. At HSBC, Corkett's days were a whirlwind: meetings with fellow executives, writing reports, bi-weekly trips to London. After he lost his job in the depths of the financial crisis, Corkett spent a year seeking something comparable. He sent out about 200 applications, but the financial services industry was decimated. Finally, he got the mortgage-broker job at Silver Fin Capital through a friend. "Obviously, I needed to pay some bills somehow," he says. He viewed the gig as a way to "beef up the weakest part of my résumé." Corkett had lost out on a position as head of mortgage banking for a midsize bank, partly because he had no experience originating loans. The transformation has been head-spinning. Corkett previously helped buy mortgages and cobble them into securities for sale to equally savvy investors, providing funding for thousands of anonymous home buyers across the country. He also ensured that the firm had the staff and technology to execute the deals and still turn a profit. Now, he's a scrappy commission-based salesman, painstakingly shepherding each family through a home purchase. He generates leads, presents applications to banks and explains to buyers what they can or can't afford based on their income. He enjoys educating home buyers: "The big reward is helping people own their home." Yet Corkett says, "I don't feel I'm being challenged as much. The hardest part is dumbing down. I've lived in a very sophisticated, very complicated world. Now, I have to make things simple." Then there's the loss of status. His opinion was "sought out and respected" by HSBC colleagues. Now, his advice on how his boss can expand his business or run it more efficiently is not as eagerly embraced. "He tells me very politely, 'Greg, just focus.' " Corkett, who lives in a $1 million home with his wife and daughter in Huntington, N.Y., also has scaled back his lifestyle. He and his wife have stopped taking vacations, rarely go out to dinner and have replaced theater outings with movie rentals. He believes he's in an "interim situation" that will benefit him "when I get back to the executive level." At the same time, he adds, "I could absolutely see myself" at the brokerage long-term if the job market doesn't perk up. He thinks he could earn as much as $200,000 a year as a broker, though he likely would have to sell his house to make ends meet. "I would hope at some point I would get the opportunity to move into some type of management role" at Silver Fin. A new perspective Mike Sebastian, 52, of Dallas had an equally dizzying fall. As chief information officer for a $500 million construction company, he was responsible for ensuring that employees had the bandwidth and security protection they needed to manage projects such as construction of the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. After he was laid off in 2008, he struggled for more than a year to find a similar high-paying job. But many firms cut CIOs in the downturn, assigning their duties to chief financial officers. Now, as a senior business analyst for a mortgage servicing company, he pulls mortgage-lending data from computers at the request of managers and is a liaison between executives who need software upgrades and information-technology workers. His annual pay plunged from $160,000 to $70,000, and he traded a big corner office for a cubicle. "When you're in a worker-bee position, it's just not as fulfilling," he says. "As CIO, it's your job to know why you do things. In this role, it's your job to know how to do things." Sebastian, who's been CIO for several top companies, would like a similar role again. But he says that could be difficult as technology changes so rapidly in his industry. "When you're out of work for six months ... you're out of the game." He still wants to advance, noting he's siphoning $3,000 a month from his savings to meet expenses and had to discontinue his kids' piano lessons. But he has downsized his expectations and would be content to become a senior project manager who reports to the CIO. How to get there? "My No. 1 objective at work is to surpass whatever they want," he says. For example, Sebastian says, he has generated reports that showed executives they weren't tracking certain loans. "Either I'll be very good at what I do, somebody's going to recognize it and I'll get promoted here," or he'll be hired at another firm. Other managers who had delegated tasks to underlings before the recession are now doing the legwork themselves. When Paul Konigstein was chief financial officer of the New York Hall of Science, a hands-on science and technology center, he had a staff of six who helped him prepare budgets and manage grants. After he was laid off early this year, he took a 25% pay cut to become director of grants management for New Leaders for New Schools, which trains future principals. He reports to the chief financial officer, and when fundraising discrepancies arise, he sharpens his pencil. "You have to list all the transactions you recorded, put them side by side and figure out where they don't match," says Konigstein, 47. "It feels comfortable, but there's also some sadness. You feel like you're regressing." Such attention to the nitty-gritty doesn't leave much time for the kind of strategic planning that many rising managers thrived on. When she oversaw investment giant Charles Schwab's nationwide call center, Maria Parrish of Phoenix dreamed up ways to improve customer service. As a lower-level manager at a law firm's tech-support center, the 45-year-old is monitoring calls, checking time cards and fretting over who's late or sick. "I had forgotten how tedious it is." The perils of idleness Some experts say a tumble down the career ladder doesn't have to be painful or permanent. Career coach Robert Meier, CEO of the Job Clinic in Tampa, says it's better to take a lower-level job than to create an even bigger hole in your résumé by holding out for a better position. Then, he says, workers can advance "by delivering multiples of the value of your salary." Manpower's Perez advises clients to take community college classes to hone new skills. Susan Casias, who lost her job in February as regional manager for a recycling company, is already on the verge of reclaiming her former status. In September, she took a job as a sales representative for Digitex, a Houston supplier of printers and copiers. Her $30,000 salary is about a fifth of her former compensation, but she'll soon be earning $20,000 a month in commissions. Plus, she says, "I'm already mentoring some of the new kids." Her boss, Rocco Chiovitti, says he plans to promote her to manager early next year. "She's very supportive to me. She understands (things) from a management point of view." Hiring the overqualified Jodi Chavez, senior vice president for executive recruiting firm Parker & Lynch, says many companies are taking advantage of the soft job market to snare talented workers at a lower price and then promote them when the economy improves. That's at least partly offsetting the longstanding tendency of employers to balk at hiring overqualified candidates for fear they'll jump to a higher-paying position when the job market surges. This year, Hoag health care system in Orange County, Calif., hired 1,400 employees to staff a new hospital it opened in Irvine. After sifting through thousands of applications, it recruited former charge nurses as staff nurses, and vice presidents of accounting or human resources as midlevel managers. "It gives us skills at levels you wouldn't normally have," says Jan Blue, Hoag's vice president of human resources. "If veteran workers have valuable experience and they're a good employee, more than likely they'll find their way" to higher levels. We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more