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The News Journal

By Esteban Parra

Magna Olivera was frightened for more than a year.

She felt helpless watching the stock market meltdown wip out savings. She saw friends and acquaintances lose their jobs. She worried that it would happen to her.

To protect herself, Olivera changed her lifestyle.

She cut back on spending and started saving. She moved into a Wilmington apartment and got a roommate.

“It was very concerning, such that I decided to pretty much put my life on hold and really cut down on my expenses,” Olivera said.

But in the past few months, the 33-year-old has seen signs of hope — enough to convince her to buy a house in Pike Creek.

“I’m not 100 percent confident, and I don’t think I will be for a while,” she said. “But I’m ready to be a little more on the positive side and move forward.”

Others in Delaware also are feeling more hopeful.

After losing his job at Commerce Bank, 49-year-old Bryan Piane of Wilmington has part-time work and is pursuing a new career in health care. Karen Linton, 53, of New Castle, is feeling better about spending, but only if she’s certain she really needs something. Though still unemployed, Samantha Phillips, 23, of New Castle, believes she’ll find work because she’s seeing others around her get jobs.

They are not alone. Across the region and country, everyday people are seeing signs of a turnaround.

Forty-one percent of Americans now say the economy is improving, up eight points from April and more than at any time during the recession, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll. Just 15 percent think the economy is getting worse, according to the poll conducted April 28 to May 2.

“The consumer panic is no longer happening,” said Michael Bratus, an associate economist at Moody’s Economy.com.

That is in contrast to the dark days in late 2008 when millions of jobs were vanishing and the stock market freefall seemed never-ending. In the first full week of October 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,874 points, about 18 percent.

Wall Street is still suffering from wild swings, such as that of May 6, when the Dow plunged nearly 1,000 points in about 30 minutes before climbing more than 600 points that same day. Yet the three major U.S. indexes finished higher last week.

“It seemed like things were never going to bottom,” Bratus said. “This stabilization, this uptick in confidence, is a function of consumers being fairly confident that we are not going back to 2008 levels.”

The Commerce Department announced Friday that retail sales rose 0.4 percent last month, better than the 0.2 percent economists expected. Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

In the early days of the recession, Olivera, a marketing analyst, started her cost-cutting efforts. Instead of paying someone to reupholster her furniture, she did it herself.

“It is a new lifestyle I adhere to,” she said.

The native Brazilian also planned what she would do if she lost her job and figured she could earn money translating Portuguese or Spanish. She made sure her résumé was up to date.

As financial conditions improved and she felt more secure in her job, she took the plunge and bought her home. Lower interest rates helped. She also felt it would be better to invest in her own property rather than rent.

But she’s still not spending like she did before the recession hit.

“I’m not looking to buy this or buy this, like before,” she said. “Now I’m more like ‘Let’s keep it simple and not spend as much money. The house is enough.’ ”

After losing his banking job, Wilmington resident Bryan Piane is taking the necessary steps -- including part-time work and training -- to land the job he wants in health care. (The News Journal/JENNIFER CORBETT)

Samantha Phillips

New mother brushes up on skills to re-enter work force

Samantha Phillips quit her job as a highway toll-taker in early 2008 to give birth to her son, Devonte.

“I wasn’t really that aware of what was about to happen,” said the 23-year-old from the Penn Acres community near New Castle.

She had to move in with relatives. She also was unable to pay her bills and quickly fell behind on her cell phone, credit card and car payments.

“I felt alone because I was going to have a child to take care of, and I had nothing,” she said. “It was pretty bad for me.”

Phillips receives $330 in government assistance per month and her boyfriend helps pay rent and provide for Devonte.

“I have to rely on my boyfriend or my parents most of the time,” she said. “I don’t want to be there.”

She has struggled to find a full-time job, adding, “I would have kept my job if I would have known it was going to be that bad.”

Phillips said she is feeling more confident about the economy and returned to school to get a degree in photography.

She’s also taking employment and training classes at Wilmington’s West End Neighborhood House, where she and others brush up on interview techniques and learn new job skills.

West End’s Employment & Training classes started in late 2008 as a result of the recession, said Molly Keresztury, the community center’s assistant director of development.

“It officially began taking clients in January of ’09,” she said. “To date, we’ve served over 500 people and there is currently a waiting list to get into classes. The class is definitely growing.”

So far, 110 participants have secured jobs, Keresztury said. Another 52 have returned to school.

“While our classes focus on practical skills, such as how to conduct a professional interview, they also give frustrated individuals a sense of support and comfort as they experience the difficulty of finding a new job or transitioning into a new profession,” Keresztury said. “Many of our customers say that the close-knit, family atmosphere helps them stay positive and productive during the search process.”

West End also reports seeing more job openings and more of its clients getting interviews.

“In our class, at least 15 to 20 people in the past two months have gotten jobs,” Phillips said. “I feel more confident that I can find a job now. It just seems more optimistic seeing that other people are making progress, who are in the same situation as myself.”

Karen Linton

Dedicated worker rethinks spending habits for good

Karen Linton of New Castle has traveled to Philadelphia to work in the Tastykake factory since 1975.

Her dedication has earned her a promotion to a supervisor’s position at the pastry plant, where she oversees the icing of the small cakes.

Her income allowed her to pretty much buy what she wanted, when she wanted. Among her impulse buys was an electronic Bible that she felt she “had to have.”

But the 53-year-old began to change last year as she watched and heard about millions of people losing their jobs, homes and savings. Linton stopped spending on items she didn’t need and sought out bargains. She also put off taking online classes.

“I started to evaluate life, started seeing it in a different way — seeing the possessions were nothing but possessions,” she said. “This recession was a period of relearning, rethinking and redeveloping.”

As times have improved, Linton admits that she has started spending a little more — but not like she used to.

The same is true across the country as consumer spending rose in the first three months of this year. It was the fastest growth rate in three years, the federal government reported.

But the increase wasn’t as much as retailers hoped, indicating that others — like Linton — also are re-evaluating their habits.

Bryan Piane

Former bank employee switches field of work

When the economy tanked, Bryan Piane said he was forced out of his Commerce Bank job after 3 1/2 years in banking.

“It was difficult,” said Piane, whose business life revolved around his people skills. “The amount of things you really have to do. You have to kind of try to pinch pennies.”

Piane became frustrated and stressed, and saw a doctor after going into a depression.

“It really took a lot out of me, because it really felt like I was doing a good job,” he said. “It was very, very difficult.”

Piane, who pays child support for his three sons, said he didn’t have much money left over and wouldn’t have known what to do if his girlfriend wasn’t there for him.

“I’m just lucky to have that. If not, I’d be at the Y or something,” he said. “There’s really not a whole lot of places I have to go.”

It also helped him to remember his father’s advice to not give up: “He’d written us all poems to not quit.”

For three months, Piane said, he searched for a job and eventually decided to leave the financial field. He is now trying health care and is providing care for elderly people part-time.

“I found out that I enjoyed what I was doing,” he said. “It felt like I was giving back to society and it made me feel good about myself.”

Although unemployment remains high, there has been a decrease in mass layoffs in which 50 people or more are let go by one employer. During the first three months of 2010, there were 1,564 mass layoffs, letting go about 221,150 workers. In the first quarter of 2009, there were 3,979 mass layoffs, or 705,141 terminated jobs.

The job market news continues to improve, the Labor Department said Thursday. The number of Americans filing claims for jobless benefits dropped for a fourth straight week, a sign that businesses are holding on to more workers as the economy expands. U.S. jobless claims declined by 4,000 last week.

Delaware’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stayed steady at 9.2 percent in March, according to the state Labor Department’s most recent figures. April’s unemployment rate is due this week.

“I am slowly seeing the job force grow,” Piane said, adding that it is encouraging him to believe that things will get better.

He works as a caregiver at an assisted-living center near Hockessin and recently landed another part-time job, which he hopes to start this week.

“It’s a part-time job going into homes and helping seniors that need home care,” he said.

He received a certified nursing assistant certificate and plans to return to school for a physical therapist assistant degree to improve his job chances.

“It’s pretty competitive out there right now,” he said. “But as the year goes along, I see more opportunity.”

Keith Holoviak

Former Chrysler worker launches his own business

Keith Holoviak, a 40-year-old Townsend resident who worked at Chrysler’s Mopar parts-distribution center for 20 years before it closed in January 2009, launched a landscaping business, Edgescape Designs Inc., which installs concrete edging for gardens and lawns.

Holoviak, who is married and has a daughter, was feeling confident about the business until people stopped spending.

“It was very stressful,” said Holoviak, who spent nine months searching for a full-time job when homeowners stopped spending on improvements. He found a warehouse job, working a late shift, but not making nearly what he was earning at Chrysler.

The family began cutting back any way it could, watching how much they spent and staying close to home if they decided to travel. Although still struggling, Holoviak said he’s feeling better about the economy as he gets more calls for landscaping, including repeat customers as well as new ones.

“It’s slowly turning around,” he said, attributing the nudge in business to warming temperatures and people feeling more confident about their job security.

“People are starting to spend money,” Holoviak said, adding that he does not expect them to return to a buying frenzy.

“It’s not what it was six years ago,” he said. “I think it’s going to take a few more years for that.”