And yesterday Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a firm that counsels out-of-work executives, reported that more than 400,000 layoffs had been announced nationwide since Jan. 1.

Ms. Baron said that there were now fewer jobs at the top levels of publishing, and many out-of-work executives are motivated to write by the potential payoff.

So all through the 1960's and 1970's, out-of-work executives did everything they could to maintain the illusion that they were still gainfully employed.

Take the experiences of the 20 educated, skilled, out-of-work executives who recently participated in a job-search workshop program in an effort to find jobs.

The out-of-work executives do not have much available in the way of resources.

MUCH has changed and none of it is good, since the spring of 1988 when A.A.R.P. Works, a career-planning program for out-of-work executives, was first held.

But rather than going begging for another position, he pursued a course that has become increasingly popular among out-of-work executives in this wobbly economy: He started a business.

"Women were starting small businesses, and I knew a lot of out-of-work executives who were also going out on their own for the first time," he recalled.

They are out-of-work executives and other professionals.

Our article on out-of-work executives and their search for new jobs hit home, prompting a deluge of mail.