LAKELAND, Fla. -- "I haven't seen shoes like this in 25 years," marvels Jim McFarland. The narrow hall of his small shoe-repair shop is piled high with reheeled stilettos, resoled boots and polished oxfords.

Mr. McFarland, a third-generation cobbler, is riding a shoe-repair boom. Since mid-November, he has been juggling roughly 275 repair jobs a week -- about 50% more than usual. "I'm so busy right now it's unbelievable," he says.

The recession is battering big swaths of the U.S. economy, but it's given a new lease on life to the tiny shoe-repair industry, which has been shrinking for decades. Nationwide, cobblers and their suppliers report markedly higher revenues than a year ago, as newly frugal Americans opt to repair their shoes rather than replace them.

"Our business is very, very strong in an industry that has been depressed and declining for many years," says Lee Efronson, owner of Miami Leather Co., a wholesaler of shoe-care products to cobblers since 1959.

In assorted nooks of the national economy, the recession has provided a welcome jolt. Résumé writers have seen an upsurge in business from customers looking for jobs. Auto mechanics say they are getting busier keeping old cars on the road. And employment lawyers are picking up clients swept up in the waves of layoffs.